Battle Academy by slitherine Ltd.

[farmboy74]

Well done to Slitherine for standing their ground, BA is well worth the money a costs a fraction of what the pc game sells for. The AppStore shouldn't be about a race to the bottom as far as app prices are concerned.

[Quantus]

It's worth far more than $20 when compared to the video game market as a whole, but I am still hesitant to buy. The sad truth is that there are a plethora of great ios games for a dollar or two. It's hard to justify spending $20 for one game when you can get twenty other great games for a $1 each.

Value of entertainment is relative. How many of us are persuaded by the argument that a $60 dollar pc game is cheap because going to the movie theater costs about $20 dollars an hour?

True, the cost of BA is cheap when compared to PC or console games. But, when judging the appropriate cost of entertainment, I think it is perfectly reasonable to look at direct competition. I.e., other ios games.

That's my 2 cents. I'm prepared to be raged upon. Hope the devs don't hold the above against me. BA is a phenomenal game. But, I think the price is steep.

[Mythbuster]

Originally Posted by Quantus

It's worth far more than $20 when compared to the video game market as a whole, but I am still hesitant to buy. The sad truth is that there are a plethora of great ios games for a dollar or two. It's hard to justify spending $20 for one game when you can get twenty other great games for a $1 each.

The solution is simple: Just buy the 0.99 $ games ...

Sorry, I pay exact the amount which I am willing to pay for a game ...

If I am not interested in BA I would not pay 1 or 2 $ for it ... if a software is 20 Bucks worth for me I will pay it and will not look to other cheaper games ...

I am glad that I have games like BA, Magic the Gathering & Carcassone on my iPad ... nobody wants to work for nothing so if we want to have high quality games we have to pay for it ...

[DotComCTO]

Originally Posted by Quantus

It's worth far more than $20 when compared to the video game market as a whole, but I am still hesitant to buy. The sad truth is that there are a plethora of great ios games for a dollar or two. It's hard to justify spending $20 for one game when you can get twenty other great games for a $1 each.

Value of entertainment is relative. How many of us are persuaded by the argument that a $60 dollar pc game is cheap because going to the movie theater costs about $20 dollars an hour?

True, the cost of BA is cheap when compared to PC or console games. But, when judging the appropriate cost of entertainment, I think it is perfectly reasonable to look at direct competition. I.e., other ios games.

That's my 2 cents. I'm prepared to be raged upon. Hope the devs don't hold the above against me. BA is a phenomenal game. But, I think the price is steep.

I, too, was hesitant on the price initially. So I decided to download the Mac demo and try the game. I instantly knew this was going to be the game for me. I wanted a serious WW2 TBS game that supported PBEM (how's that for a bunch of acronyms?!). I wanted to play that kind of game on my iPad so I could play it anytime and anywhere I wanted. So, for me, Battle Academy hit the mark, and I love it.

Remember, BA is much more of a niche game that was never intended for the mass market. At $0.99, $2.99, $4.99 or even $9.99, Slitherine knows they'll never get any return on investment at that price. Furthermore, this is the same game as the one for the PC & Mac. Those also cost $19.99; same price regardless of the platform. How can Slitherine sell BA for $9.99 on iOS when the exact same game costs $19.99 on the other platforms? Doing that would completely disenfranchise their existing customers.

I get your point about pricing, but I think Slitherine is doing the right thing. Only you can determine whether the price/value of BA is right for you.



--DotComCTO

[DotComCTO]

Pip/Iain,

I upgraded to BA v2.0.0 last night and wanted to report that this is the second time I've upgraded BA where I've lost all my saves and settings. So, after the upgrade, all my single player progress was lost. In addition, my music settings (off) and my multiplayer login info was wiped out as well.

I am running on a 64 GB "new iPad". The upgrade was performed by downloading the update to my Mac and then syncing my iPad via iTunes.

As for the multiplayer update: thanks for adding the "save" button! That makes life a lot easier. At least I can put the iPad down and shut it off without worrying about re-doing a turn.

In multiplayer, I'm still waiting for the replay of the replay option. I've even considered how that could work: the option would only be available at the beginning of the turn. If the player issues any orders to a unit after the initial replay, then the replay button would be grayed out. Keep in mind that issuing orders means exactly that, so just tapping on a unit to see its current stats would not count as issuing an order.

Thoughts?

--DotComCTO

[PipFromSlitherine]

Originally Posted by DotComCTO

Pip/Iain,

I upgraded to BA v2.0.0 last night and wanted to report that this is the second time I've upgraded BA where I've lost all my saves and settings. So, after the upgrade, all my single player progress was lost. In addition, my music settings (off) and my multiplayer login info was wiped out as well.

I am running on a 64 GB "new iPad". The upgrade was performed by downloading the update to my Mac and then syncing my iPad via iTunes.

As for the multiplayer update: thanks for adding the "save" button! That makes life a lot easier. At least I can put the iPad down and shut it off without worrying about re-doing a turn.

In multiplayer, I'm still waiting for the replay of the replay option. I've even considered how that could work: the option would only be available at the beginning of the turn. If the player issues any orders to a unit after the initial replay, then the replay button would be grayed out. Keep in mind that issuing orders means exactly that, so just tapping on a unit to see its current stats would not count as issuing an order.

Thoughts?

--DotComCTO

This update should be the last where settings etc get lost - sorry about that, going forward you shouldn't need to lose any saves, nor go through the IAP purchase drama again. I believe it should also save your saves etc via the iCloud backup, although I haven't had a chance to test that theory out as yet.

MP replay is on our list of things to add, but it's a pretty long list!

Cheers

Pip

[DotComCTO]

Originally Posted by PipFromSlitherine

This update should be the last where settings etc get lost - sorry about that, going forward you shouldn't need to lose any saves, nor go through the IAP purchase drama again. I believe it should also save your saves etc via the iCloud backup, although I haven't had a chance to test that theory out as yet.

Thanks, Pip! It was making me mental...well...more mental than usual!

Originally Posted by PipFromSlitherine

MP replay is on our list of things to add, but it's a pretty long list!

Oh, nonsense. Send me the list and I'll help you prioritize!

--DotComCTO

[Slitherine Iain]

Last thing to say on the pricing

We do not consider ourselves part of the app store ecosystem, or the computer games industry.

We are part of the wargames industry.

As such we work in a very different way, have a very different customer base and philosophy to almost every other game developer out there.

We continuously get told we are doing it all wrong by people who don't understand us and our industry. That's fine we don't take offence, but don't be offended when we don't listen to the advice

[Paradoxish]

Originally Posted by Quantus

That's my 2 cents. I'm prepared to be raged upon. Hope the devs don't hold the above against me. BA is a phenomenal game. But, I think the price is steep.

If you think the price is steep then I'm not going to change your mind, but I think the problem here is assuming that video games are substitute goods. Will someone who wants an endless runner or a puzzle game or a freemium grind buy Battle Academy because it happens to be cheaper? Will someone who wants a wargame scoff at Battle Academy's price and buy some bux for Pocket Planes instead?

Even ignoring genres, I think implying that a $1 game is necessarily worth 1/20th of a $20 game is a faulty assumption. If I want to play a game like Battle Academy, then I'm not going to be happy spending $20 on twenty individual games that are nothing like it or twenty similar games that are less polished and less fun. Likewise, I probably wouldn't even spend $5 on Battle Academy if I specifically wanted some kind of quick pick-up-and-play game to waste five minutes with.

I guess in general these discussions just feel weird to me, because I can't think of a time when I said "that game is too expensive, I guess I'll buy this game instead." If I decide not to buy a game because of the price, it means I'm probably not going to buy anything at all. And if I do end up buying something cheaper, odds are I would have bought it even if I bought the more expensive game.

[cloud tiger]

Originally Posted by Slitherine Iain

Last thing to say on the pricing

We do not consider ourselves part of the app store ecosystem, or the computer games industry.

We are part of the wargames industry.

As such we work in a very different way, have a very different customer base and philosophy to almost every other game developer out there.

We continuously get told we are doing it all wrong by people who don't understand us and our industry. That's fine we don't take offence, but don't be offended when we don't listen to the advice

Great game and worth every penny !