A new small game coming from me, about the town of Domond, balanced on a narrow pinnacle of rock, beneath the Shear Falls.
Really pretty art style. I've enjoyed some of your 'experimental' stuff like Distractions and Welfare State despite not having enough substance to keep me interested for long. This looks like your most interesting work yet, and I really love the look of this world you're creating! What kind of a game is this one? Or is it a game? Or is it a whole new genre of game? Honestly don't know what to expect given some of your past work but it looks really really pretty and I'll be picking it up no matter what.
Glad y'all are liking the art! There's definitely a game in there, but also it's about the space itself. It's a pretty small thing, but will be bigger than Welfare State and any particular Distraction. Cheers!
In Game Monetization? Hi Randy, Do love the creative art style- there needs to be more games like this! Are you planning to monetize with ads in your game? Cheers, Savio
Glad everyone is digging the look and curious for more. It has one significant design challenge right now, but the world is coming alive and I'll be sending the game to friends soon for feedback. "Seldom Falls" is a small thing, more a poem than a book. A poem about erosion and time. Right now the plan is a somewhat standard free monetization scheme. Free with ads to double in-game currency or unlock buildings early. Planning on 2-3 premium unlocks. Like, a $2 get rid of ads, or a $5 get rid of ads and control the in-game time of day and unlock all the buildings. Something like that. There will be no straight-up currency purchasing; I dislike that method of monetizing.
Hey all! I showed off some of my recent work on this Critical Distance stream, including some Seldom Falls stuff! Critical Distance is a sweet academically leaning website that really tries to analyze games in a thoughtful manner. patreon.com/critdistance And you can watch and see some Seldom Falls in action here (that starts around 8:12):
Sometimes the waterfall runneth over. The game has been continuing to take shape and a couple weeks ago a few changes in the gameplay dramatically improved things. Hoping early/mid January. Doing a lot of brainstorming on whether to go paid, or free with unlocks.
The town gets a little more intricate every day. The weather has battered the town, however, and things threaten to collapse. But through smart design, through protection and alignment, the town may survive another few years.
The people of Domond use waterwheels to diffuse the cascades and keep efficiency to a maximum. I'm looking for a few folks interested in playtesting Seldom Falls. Feel free to PM me emails. == I'm still working on whether the game will work best as a free game with ads (and a couple paid unlocks), or a premium game. Can I say that, as a developer, this is a difficult decision. If a paid game does not get featured, it's pretty much dead-on-arrival. However, being paid legitimizes the game in a way that resonates with certain player populations (like fans of indie games). With a premium game, any player is income. But again, if the traction doesn't hit during launch, there will be no players or income and the game will be lost in the shuffle. If the game is free with ads, the game will automatically have more traction. However, there is a threshold (hundreds of thousands of players) where it actually makes a profit. Very few players ever pay for things in a free game. (Don't we all pride ourselves on never buying things in free apps? I know I do.) The thing free counts on is that there are so many players that ads are profitable, and also that even half a percent who buy the IAP make it worth it. The other thing is that a free game can still be "found" a year later in a way that is very unlikely with premium games. So, in closing, Seldom Falls will probably be free with ads, unless all the mobile devs I know tell me otherwise. -Randy O
Inside the town of Domond, little moments occur, and if you pay attention, you'll get to read some of these things. I have been building a "moment generator", which builds little stories of what's happening in your town. Here are some of the moments I've discovered. I've also got the basics of special buildings in now. As of this week the game is feature complete, in that every feature of the game exists and works to some extent. Everything still needs work, but now it's tightening things, drawing, animating, adding more audio, adding other things like analytics, etc, making it work well on older devices. Hope you're having a good Wednesday! -Randy O
