Me too. I hope there was nothing personal here. Obviously the whole IAP is a sore point for the gaming community in general. I hope he is reinstated soon because I too find Bronxsta's opinions well-worded and considered, thereby making him/her a valuable member of the TA community.
+1 I bought many games because of him. I don't know the situation or anything so I apologize if I'm overstepping, but I miss em.
Ok. I have read the article. Here is my take on the specifics of IAP in this game: First of all - I feel a large portion of the complaints about the IAP are from general IAP dissenters. This is evidenced by the fact that there is continuous mention of time locks, no ships, wait times etc. As someone who has actually bought the IAP...I can tell you that these simply are not true (with one exception). Purchasing the IAP turns essentially turns this into a premium game. Facts: purchasing the coin doubler gives you enough coins after two-three runs to upgrade something...even at higher tiers. The ship IAP gives you 20 ships instead of 10 and the refresh rate is so high...I have yet to run out of ships in a play session. The timers on the upgrades do make you wait for...a bit...but there is enough to do for it not to be an issue. Essentially, I feel it is a decent RPG mechanic and gives a sense of accomplishment. It does not hinder gameplay or make it less enjoyable in a significant way. The lock on level 7 is misplaced (IMO) because it interferes with the main canpaign. It is a good idea for community building...it should just be part of a side branch...not a main block. Essentially, I feel that the Devs have good intentions and good ideas about IAP and are just trying to make a living. I feel that some ideas are not good and it has unfortunately been poorly implemented. I think they tried to give players a level of option in support and maybe just should have had one unlock IAP. But...I respect the rationale and trying a novel pay model. With some adjusting, I think it can work. In short, the IAP in this game doesn't ruin the game itself. It is just slightly misguided.
Excellent post Personally, this is exactly the type of thing I'm looking for when I want to see how IAP affects a game.
I played this game for 10 minutes and I was ready to dump any amount of money in it to remove all of this ad, timer, slow-star-grind garbage out of the experience. But with no clear purchasing option that removes all of that, it clearly presents itself as a money sink. I would've paid $5 or even $7 to remove ads, a star doubler, and timer removal, but with no option to remove the timer and all I've heard about dreaded Stage 7, this game gets $0. And I'm sure I'm not the only one. iDream, do yourselves a favor and hold yourselves and your customers in a higher regard please. A studio of your caliber should not be resorting to such blatant money grabs. Look at Battleheart Legacy. Nothing free. No demo. No IAPs. $5 straight up. I realize your cost for development may have been higher, although I find it hard to contest with Battleheart's production value, but you could've scaled your price accordingly. Hell, even $10 isn't necessarily off the table. Now, imagine the possibility of a 'Full Game' IAP (no ads, no timer, star doubler or tripler). I'd buy it. I know plenty on these forums would to. As it stands, unfortunately, we won't. I can see what those that have paid money have gone through to know that I'd rather spend $6 on other full games rather than IAP band-aids. This is the same fate that Dungelot 2 has suffered as well. @#$%ing whalers. It's getting boring. /rant As for constructive criticism, it was mentioned earlier that the IAP "essentially" turns Sky Force into a full game. I see IAP as a good thing when used correctly; it's the new way to allow the user to "try before you buy." The best example I can think of to date would have to be Reaper: Tale of the Pale Swordsman. It had three tiers of pay. First, you can download for free and play the game unhinder until level 10. No grinding, no backtracking. Just pure storyline and side quests until level 10. Then $2.99 unlocked the full campaign. If you liked it, you could pay another $.99 for an extra side quest and to allow a pen-ultimate level of gear to spawn in the armor shop. And if you really liked it, you could pay another $.99 to unlock an arena level and a final gear set in the armor shop. I loved the game, so I dropped $5 instantly and put at least 50 hours into that game. This is a good use of the IAP model. Timer reducers, consumables, currency doublers? All red flags to the discerning mobile gamer. Source: I've dropped roughly $4,000 on apps in 6 years.
@Nomnom, I too loved Reaper (wish they would update it with more content!!) and I agree with you wholly that their IAP model was pretty good. But, let's not forget that there was outrage initially with Reaper as well as no one knew what you would get with the premium purchase, etc. and so many complaints were about the issue. Ultimately, it was really fair and I too out in many hours enjoying it start to finish. Worth every cent. With that said, I believe the Sky Force model is good too and is only brought about by the necessary evil of the App Store need for exposure (hence the 'free' price tag). They could have put an 'unlock it all' button and perhaps should have but this way gives the user a level of choice in purchase. For example, I have yet to disable the ads for some reason even I can't explain...guess they don't bother me much. What I want to get across though is this: You won't be disappointed if you pay to unlock this. The timers are non-existent afterwards and the currency is plentiful (and yet needs to be used strategically). I highly recommend the game. If you do buy it, let me know. I know you will love it, particularly if you enjoyed Reaper!
