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I know that one - Escape from the planet of the robot monsters. I could never get very far because the slanted isometric perspective + standard four keyboard arrows never aligned properly in my brain. I received the game as part of a boxed ‘Tengen’s EGA Arcade Hits’ as a birthday gifts when I was maybe 10, and it also included games like APB and Hard Driving.

If CaptainD confirms that guess to be right, and I’m pretty sure it is, someone else can take my turn.

[happy]

Ooooo the ol' heated conversation of monetising a gaming project is about to happen. This is always fun.

From my humble perspective, there are sort of two paying communities you can directly target: (1) adult gamers and (2) the parents of kid gamers. I'm actually an example of both, so here's a quick rundown of what makes me open my wallet in each case.

Firstly, the adult gamer...

So in my case (I'm 40/male btw), I like to get invested in the developer's story. I love games where there is accompanying media that let's you peek behind the curtain and see how the game was actually made. I like learning about the tools and meeting the passionate founder/writers and hearing the about struggles and triumphs. I like seeing the blood, sweat, tears build up to the climatic moment of release and then I like being a part of that release through playing the product and celebrating it online. The movie Indie Game captures the community groundswell that develops around a game very well (I bought all three of those games, btw), and these AGS forums are amazing for churning this sort of vibe, too. In these sorts of projects, $50 to play the game or pick up a T-shirt, hat, maybe soundtrack (although I could probably find the soundtrack on YouTube) is money I'm happy to spend. And I mean that quite literally: I feel rewarded to help a developer that allowed me to take the journey with them.

The way you capture the above market is to make your project's development story accessible online. You can find several good examples of people doing this here in the 'Games in production' section. Setting up a thread (as I see you've done) and then updating it from time to time with development tidbits (if you did video updates or podcast interviews you would be head and shoulders differentiated from all the other developers here), asking people to wishlist the game on Steam, setting up an email mailing list with game updates, these are ways to build some following, ensure returning eyeballs, and make a few bucks when you go to launch the game.

Secondly, the parents of the kid gamer...

So my son (5 years old) and I started to get into gaming together when this pandemic kicked off. His favourite games are Minecraft (of course), Fez, and Hollow Knight, and the random AGS games I find that have speech tracks and are appropriate for young audiences (it's actually really hard to find these titles!) My son is allowed to play a few hours on the weekend only, but he nevertheless is interested in any game paraphernalia we see online for his favourite titles (we order t-shirts and stuffed toys, but also games recommended by Steam that are similar to his favourites. I'm sure we'd buy posters if we saw them, etc).

Games that capture this market really know how to win not only the praise of kids but also their parents (i.e. a polished game that is age appropriate in theme and delivery but also very fun and includes memorable characters). If kids like a game, they want everything in that universe, so there are so may outlets for product development among this market. A good case study here (I think) is Super Meat Boy. A bit old for my son, but I can see how parents of 10-12 year olds would probably be down with buying stuffed animals, posters, colouring books, etc. I think this game still sells a lot of this stuff to this day, so they are on point from a marketing perspective.

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Anyway, I'm not sure if any of the above is helpful, but I hope it at least gives you some leads to follow up. Good luck with your project~

The original Dr Dolittle?

Or perhaps The Darwin Adventure?

This is so damn stupid, but so damn catchy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uukvEcd25oQ

Lol if the Catholic Church were a pop song 

Recently I started listening to one Russian punk group called "Король и Шут" or "The King and the Jester" (if translated), which I've only heard about from my school friends long ago. Something reminded me of them and I decided to check it out, and loved it. They worked in an eclectic genre of "fantasy horror" with lots of dark humor and grotesque pathos in their texts. Unfortunately I don't know of english translations, but I could try finding later.

Here's one of the albums:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-C0lCPFTj8

Nice one! That's a cool opening track. I don't if it's the way the drums were recorded or the tone of the voice but it reminds me of early Millencolin:

Maybe you’re picking up on the earlier Ireland talk and have gone with The Dubliners?

Very nice. Looks like a setting for a Studio Ghibli film. 

I’ve got something very small in the works, too!

Enya, wow haven't listened to her in ages. I will admit I always have an emotional reaction to her voice.

Slasher, your track won't load here. 

I really enjoyed elements of the Bojack series. If you know the show, this will bring back some memories:

It's a great theme, Lorenzo. I keep meaning to enter these with my son, but we never get around to actually finishing a project! I'll try to find time this weekend to polish a final entry.

Cesar Gray about to drop a spam nuke any minute...

Another conspiracy: your AGS account and Slasher’s are run by the same person!

Yeah 4 was great. I I have to admit I had a little dust in my eye at the end of 3...holding hands as they slide into the fire?

Hurling is definitely Irish. I think it might even be their national sport.

Is the movie Babel?

No prob! Wishing you guys a successful launch~

a pair of sweltering

Four Lions?

lullaby about an erect

By the way, you used Voodoo Kid in this thread two years ago!

Trust me, it's not that no one bothered. We just had zero idea!