A new sci-fi gamebook series is starting in February by Tin Man Games: http://tinmangames.com.au/blog/?p=1936 I'm looking forward to this!
Great stuff, got all their books so far and theyre excellent. Looking forward to this one, instant purchase
Looks quite interesting to say the least ! What do you guys think of this new IAP structure? Oh, and the release date appears to be around Feb 10 - can't wait!
With all due respect, I really think it is time to take a step back and differentiate between the purchase structure they are using and what you get in something like Gun Bros. This is not designed to squeeze ever-increasing amounts of money from you. It is more like a shareware title or a demo, where you get to try it for free and not spend your money until you know you like it.
Maybe. But I personally hate IAPs because I don't have wifi access in my house. So that means --> reading the book half-way, then figuring out I want to buy the rest of the book, going out to a public wifi spot, buying the IAP, and then coming back home to read it! I definitely think that'll take away from the seamless experience you get from just buying the whole book.
I thought these guys were doing the Judge Dredd gamebook... Now this? I do hope its the Dredd from 2000AD, and not a hollywood tie-in. Its the humor I most enjoyed about Dredd, not his bike or gun, well they were pretty hot... Oh and Anderson... All those smoking hot fem-judges who where just on another level... and the batshit crazy criminals that put Batman's villains to shame. I'll pick this up to see how their gunplay etc is being handled.
I'll have to add my displeasure about IAP, as well. To be clear, I know this isn't a freemium system or a consumable system. I just don't trust any system where a customer might not be able to reacquire their licensed content should the system for such aquisition become unavailable. Ideally, I'd rather there be two versions, one demo with IAP to upgrade and the other full right out of the gate. It splits the sales charts, but is more consumer friendly.
I dont mind the idea of IAP's for this at all, just a way to hopefully get more people into these books. As long as the 'full' price is consistent with the past books its fine, like someone else pointed out its just like having a 'shareware' title from the 90's. As for Judge Dredd the movies coming out this fall so i presume it might tie in with that
I suppose the difference I see between an IAP and the cashed-in shareware title of the past is that you could backup the latter. An IAP cannot be backed up by the end user, so in the event your device fails, you had better hope that the infrastructure still exists to recover your purchase. To be clear, I'm a big fan of Tin Man Games (hell, I started this thread). But I'm not a fan of disposable culture-- I still play 20-30 year old games in addition to new ones. I'd like to be able to play Infinite Universe again in a couple of decades, but suspect this will not be the case.
For the sake of a couple of dollars for this book though i cant believe the dev is thinking of people playing it in 20 years time and what happens if it doesnt work ! I've had to format/reset my ipod a few times and all the IAP's for the games i've got (had 650 games on my ipod) worked fine, it knew i had already paid for an IAP so simply installed it again when i was 'rebuilding' my ipod.
I wonder if Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson were concerned if "Warlock of Firetop Mountain" would still be enjoyed thirty years later. Just the same, I'll bet they're glad it is! Seriously -- disposable culture.
Hey Guys! Just wanted to jump in here and give you some more detail about the IAP and our thinking behind it. (also, I just wrote this big long reply and then was distracted by something shiny and accidentally closed my browser window, so this is take 2 In any case, IAP in Infinite Universe is a bit of an experiment for us. We definitely get comments that the current books are too expensive and stuff like that. This is our first foray into trying some other avenues to get the content into people's hands. Infinite Universe is our longest book to date clocking in at nearly 1000 sections. Spider god is around 650 (to give you an idea) IU is broken down into six chapters. You get the first chapter for free and then you can unlock each chapter after that for $0.99 for a total of ~$5 (so the same as our current books normal price) OR you can unlock the whole thing at once for $3.99 saving a dollar. That is it. There is no recurring IAPs or anything like that. (and if you are in the same boat as Validuser, then you can download it where there is wifi and just unlock the whole thing right there Our goal here is simply to lower the barrier of entry so that anyone who is even a little bit curious about the books can get into it for a few bucks. We have the light version of Assassin and that does pretty well, but some people are put off by the steep 'read the first chapter then pay $5 for the full app' way that works. With IU people who aren't sure will be able to ease themselves into it. (or so the theory goes In terms of whether the IAP will still be functioning in 20 years, i have no idea We have thought about this, and our take is basically that if your devices can still play the games in 20 years then most likely the IAP servers will still be up. I wish I had a better answer In any case, as I said this is a bit of an experiment for us. If it goes well then we may do more books like this. If it goes horribly then we will nuke it from space and just unlock all the content and set the price like a full book. As always, don't hesitate to get in touch with either Neil or myself if you have questions! Cheers! Ben Britten Tin Man Games
As Ben has cleared up some of the IAP concerns, I thought I'd hit some of the Judge Dredd discussion. We've actually been working on Infinite Universe since before we signed Judge Dredd! We always intended releasing GA8:IU at the beginning of 2012. Judge Dredd the Gamebook is NOT based on the upcoming movie. This is definitely a Judge Dredd story written and presented in a style befitting 2000 AD. Well, Dredd will be using his Lawgiver a lot in this gamebook! There will also be slight elements of humour and more than a few crazy perps to catch. Neil (aka The Tin Man)
It's currently in submission with Apple. We don't have a firm release date yet but we'll make sure to do so once we know more!
While I'm taking a wait and see approach about the IAP, I'm still really excited about this 'book. I was hoping it would be out tonight, but I guess Apple is dragging their feet. :/
