How many copies this game sold......

[m0ds]

True, there is a clear lack of AGS games that require you to wait 15 minutes through line by line loading of the title graphic

There you go Fsi, a new game for you: AGS Load Screen 

[xenogia]

It's always great to see that people can make money of their AGS titles.  I've always supported commercial AGS titles and usually purchase them on launch day.  It's also nice to see that the low resolution restrictions on AGS doesn't impend on sales either.

[Baron]

I liked how Dave pointed out in his talk how profitability and graphical quality were somewhat inversely related.  Really kinda makes you think....

[Andail]

I liked how Dave pointed out in his talk how profitability and graphical quality were somewhat inversely related.  Really kinda makes you think....

I don't think this is universally applicable, though. In his case, hiring expensive artists didn't prove profitable. In other cases, impressive graphics can be a huge selling point, but obviously it's not everything. You could just as well take any other aspect, say music, and argue that just spending lots of money on producing an awesome score won't magically salvage an otherwise lacking game, but it's still important.
Dave's formula for success has been to release a large amount of short and low-budgety games that are easy to play and appeal to casual gamers. I guess.

[Lewis]

Yeah, I would be careful trying to apply that correlation across the board for all games. Obviously with something like Machinarium, which is in the same genre, its stunning graphics were a huge part of the appeal. What it's about is understanding the appeal of your game to your target audience. Like Andail said, it seems that Dave's audience don't care too much about graphical fidelity - so it didn't appeal to a notably higher number of people due to the increase in visual quality, but it did cost a lot more to make.

To weigh in on the original discussion, we released our first commercial game last week and so far sales are in the several hundreds of units. Not allowed to give away specific figures, sadly, but hopefully that helps.

[Andail]

To weigh in on the original discussion, we released our first commercial game last week and so far sales are in the several hundreds of units. Not allowed to give away specific figures, sadly, but hopefully that helps.

That's encouraging enough for me, though
* Heads back to work station

[CaptainD]

I liked how Dave pointed out in his talk how profitability and graphical quality were somewhat inversely related.  Really kinda makes you think....

There's hope for me yet then! 

[Fitz]

Yeah, I would be careful trying to apply that correlation across the board for all games. Obviously with something like Machinarium, which is in the same genre, its stunning graphics were a huge part of the appeal. What it's about is understanding the appeal of your game to your target audience. Like Andail said, it seems that Dave's audience don't care too much about graphical fidelity - so it didn't appeal to a notably higher number of people due to the increase in visual quality, but it did cost a lot more to make.

I don't think it's about graphical fidelity. Because by what standard are the presented screenshots from Blackwell convergence "horrible" (actual customer opinion)? In what sense does it look "like it was made 20 years ago"? I think it's the lo-res -- which to us here on AGS is a beloved genre standard, but not so much for the casual player. Case in point: a friend of mine, huge fan of Angry birds, after seeing Gray: "Yeah, it's nice... But... uhh... Why are those pixels SO BIG?" I've seen some reviewers whine about the 640x480 resolution in Primordia, even listing it on top of the CONS list. Also, we don't know if it was the same people that complained about the graphics in Convergence that bought subsequent Blackwell games later. Because Epiphany still doesn't look much more 21st century

Basically, it seems casuals don't need a highly polished product -- and most wouldn't even be able to appreciate one. This highly professional and insightful review is a sad proof of that.

[Lewis]

To be fair, Soulja Boy's Braid review is pretty spot-on. It is a lot of fun fucking about with the time mechanics... ;-)

[Grim]

I hated Braid...

Good review though!;)

[Anian]

To be fair, Soulja Boy's Braid review is pretty spot-on. It is a lot of fun fucking about with the time mechanics... ;-)

Until you die constantly, then it gets annoying as hell. I'm just sad because I came a bit farther than those drunk idiots before I stopped playing.

[Lewis]

I thought Braid was wonderful, for the record. Not that it has anything to do with this discussion.

[Armageddon]

Braid is a really amazing and pretty easy game how could you guys do this...

[Grim]

I'm sorry, I love a lot of indie games- Path, Dear Esther and many more. But I just needed to get it out of the system;) Anyway, sorry for interrupting the topic. What were we talking about?

[Baron]

What were we talking about?

How many sales commercial AGS games garner.  Some vague figures have been bandied about, and others are freely available with some polite requests via PM.  What I'm interested in, though, is how many sales commercial AGS games ought to make.

Supposition: It is possible for the next Angry Birds ( > 1 billion downloads) to be an adventure game.  Based on the porting work of various AGSers (including Joseph DiPerla, JJS and possibly something going on behind the scenes at Wadjet Eye vis à  vis iOS, among others), this could feasibly even be an AGS adventure game. 

Query: What is it that AGS games have to do to really break out into the main stream?  And don't give me that first-person 3D environment crap, 'cause the genre has already been there.  What does an enterprising AGSer have to do to bring a 2.5D graphical adventure to the masses?   

[DazJ]

It's actually very interesting finding out these little nuggets of information about how much indie game makers are roughly earning. I've been working on Calm Waters for what seems like forever, and being a commercial project, this makes for very interesting reading.

[KBlaney]

What were we talking about?

How many sales commercial AGS games garner.  Some vague figures have been bandied about, and others are freely available with some polite requests via PM.  What I'm interested in, though, is how many sales commercial AGS games ought to make.

Supposition: It is possible for the next Angry Birds ( > 1 billion downloads) to be an adventure game.  Based on the porting work of various AGSers (including Joseph DiPerla, JJS and possibly something going on behind the scenes at Wadjet Eye vis à  vis iOS, among others), this could feasibly even be an AGS adventure game. 

Query: What is it that AGS games have to do to really break out into the main stream?  And don't give me that first-person 3D environment crap, 'cause the genre has already been there.  What does an enterprising AGSer have to do to bring a 2.5D graphical adventure to the masses?   

This is an interesting question. The big things that made Angry Birds a success seemed to be an instantly recognizable and cute art style, a game loop that roughly approximates "user input with no time limit" -> "see the results" and a constant stream of new content for fans that auto-updates painlessly through iTunes. AGS games could do all of those things (it has the second one in the bag already) however the "constant new content" advantage has been significantly diminished. Back in the day, doing an update to your game would put you back on the "new games" list. This is something Rovio took major advantage of by releasing packs of levels quite often (their Angry Birds Seasons did so monthly).

The next big cultural icon game will likely come up through different means, but more or less this is how Angry Birds got to where it is. I suppose if someone had a fairly large and talented writing staff and could continuously 45-60 minutes of gameplay to a single title every month (basically episodic content on steroids) or so you might be able to replicate the success with word-of-mouth sales. However, I think there would still be an inordinate amount of luck involved in that.

[CaptainD]

I think it would always be a struggle for an adventure game to have as immediate impact as something like Angry Birds.  The genre just doesn't lend itself to the immediate gameplay. replay value (trying to get better scores for each level, etc), the "pick up and play for a couple of minutes" element, and the (as KBlaney mentioned) easy addition of new content.  So whilst I would love to think an AGS game (or adventure game of any type) could be the next big thing... I honestly don't think it could.

[Armageddon]

And it's fine that it won't be.

[Xionix]

I think is better that the adventure games not get to be "the next big thing". If if gets bigger companies will take notice, and little indie will not be able,to compete with them. For companies that already got name for themselves (Wadjeteye) it will not be a problem, but a one man army that did his game on AGS, will be have trouble in the commercial world. Its like drugs and prostitutes, the shadier they are, better the benefits. I may be wrong, I never make a game, so, that just old be rambling about what I not even know.