I second this idea. Or how about if the current IAP where to fund the next expansion? Like if we had a certain goal amount of money needed to be made to make the new game features? If the developers drew up a list of what the next update would include, it might act as a purchase incentive.
Don't worry about updating. They didn't change anything at all on gameplay, they just added three consumable IAP, but gameplay is exactly the same. If you didn't need them before, you won't need them now.
Yeah, that's what I really meant: there's no problem in updating. It hasn't become freemium nor anything similar.
Terror missions are definitely high on the list. They wouldn't be so bad to implement. We'd need to get the civilian artwork done and given we aren't artists, we would have to pay to get them done. There'd be some work to figure out what triggers a terror mission to occur and we'd have to tie in the progress from terror missions into overall progress. So this is doable. If we implemented terror missions and did it as an IAP, would people pay for it? As iPadisGreat mentioned, this could count as an "expansion". Let us know your thoughts. iPadisGreat, what other things would you suggest as "expansion" type content? I can tell you that we are working on a new title "AvH: Missions" that is only the training missions (yes the ones in The Onslaught). The difference is we are adding PvP as an IAP to it. We have been testing for the last week working out the last few bugs and PvP is pretty fun. Essentially, Player 1 initiates a game. They get to choose a title and description for the game. They can then choose the terrain for the game along with the number of soldiers, the weapons they get and whether they get armor. Their turn ends. All turns are handled by game center. The set of soldiers they get is a balanced set of soldiers and each Player will get a set of soldiers with identical stats. When Player 2 accepts the game, they deck out their soldiers and end their turn. Player 1 then takes their first turn like a usual mission. When Player 2 takes their turn, they can play back everything that Player 1 did during their turn. Again, it will be hidden movement if their soldiers cannot see anything BUT you can hear what they are doing (walking, shooting, throwing, entering/exiting buildings). Play continues until one of the players kills all of the other player's soldiers. So far we haven't implemented leaderboards or things like that. We honestly don't know whether it will be a successful title or not. Our thinking was that we could use AvH: Missions to help promote AvH: The Onslaught. Also, with AvH: Missions, we could make additional sales through friends suggesting other friends buy the app so they can play against each other. We don't know whether it will pay off or not. Al(ien)
I'd like to mention that although we did add IAP, we didn't add it to fleece our users. The IAPs we did add help during gameplay but the funding model didn't change. I'd suggest players well versed in strategy will never need to use any of the IAP. Those that need a helping hand have the option. It's not like we are charging $99.99 for a virtual bag of gems... Again, we welcome the feedback on your ideas about IAP "expansions". Thanks... Al(ien)
Speaking just for myself, I don't buy anything through IAP. Expansions included. I'm oldschool from the days when you bought a game and that was it without updates because it came on a cartridge. I dislike micro transactions. Considering I'm aiming to be a new customer in the near future (my iTunes account balance is $0.80, I plan to get a card next time i go grocery shopping) its not incentive for me to buy something where I know in advance I'll be locked out of future content. It's part of the reason I never bought True Skate. Granted devs need to make money, I don't mind paying up front (raise the price $1), just not through IAP. I don't mind buying a sequel or a a "plus" version of a game for new content. Again this is my view. I don't expect the gaming world to go back to a premium experience where one purchase gets you everything a game has to offer.
IAP terror missions is a great idea; I'd buy them. I'm not a fan of PvP features, often those are hard to keep populated and I typically play on the go offline.
Well, that would be fine too. If someone really wants to give you $99.99 for a virtual bag of gems, so much the better for the rest of us who get a game we enjoy at a better price.
A little off topic but, I'm happy to see that this game has been getting some attention lately. I admit, this one slipped by me. To read what the devs. and others have said in the past couple of days made me go and download it. It sounds like a game that I would enjoy, and there is something in the way that the devs have replied here that sold me on the game.
I like both ideas: the IAP for expansions (terror missions atm) and the PvP as an IAP. I guess "AvH: Missions" would be free and you'd pay to unlock the multiplayer aspect of the game, right? I understand the opinion of the people who'd rather pay a premium price for all contents and updates (I'd love to have this too!), but I don't think that by selling games at $3 you can expect many content updates for free. And this IAP content-updates would be a one-time transaction, so you'd be able to restore purchases on any of your devices without having to pay again. I'm against consumable IAP which affect game progress. In AvH, even though the IAP are consumable, I don't mind having them in the game because you can play perfectly without them. As for IAP ideas, aside from the "terror missions", you could opt to offer a "half price" one-time IAP, which applies a permanent 50% reduction to the cost of all the items in The Onslaught. It would be similar to the "coin doublers" of many games, and a good alternative to people who, like me, are not keen on consumable IAP. As I play more with the game I'll try to post more ideas which I might have.
I knew about this game when XCOM was going to be released. I searched for X-Com information because I have never played the original and saw that AvH was released more than one year ago. I really hope that with the release of XCOM, AvH gets the attention it deserves. I'd love to have both on my phone and iPad, but unfortunately my budget was for 16GB devices, so I can't afford using 3.2GB with a single game (I already have 2.2GB used with Star Wars: KotOR!). For me, AvH is the best X-Com alternative for my phone. And even though I've bought it for the "most expensive" price it's been, I don't regret because it's a fantastic game which hasn't received the hype it deserves, possibly because it was made by unknown indie devs. I hope this changes now.
As a student at uni in the nineties on my placement year I was in digs away from my friends (bored and lonely) and playing x-com of an evening saved my sanity. I get the same 'lose myself' vibe when I play AvH today and I would happily pay a few quid for terror missions just to support the devs. Keep up the good work.
I've already provided the "onslaught" game with some music, that the devs made selectable from the options menu. What would you guys say if I offered to donate the unused music I worked on for AvH 2.0 as part of future IAP features? Some new mission types. Maybe plant a bomb in a alien base.. New terrain. What about a desert canyon environment? Or how about missions set on Hawaii and other tropical islands? What about oil rigs? That would be an interesting battlemap... Or dare I say... Underwater campaign? A better equipment screen? Perhaps something more "traditional"? (drag items onto soldier image) Another thing, that I would like, is a larger variety of aliens. The devs already KNOW that, because they've seen my goofy pixel designs I sent. Also, I had enough free time to edit almost all of the weapon designs to make them look "better" (To me at least....) Quite a lot of free time. Another thing I'd like to see introduced is a armored support vehicle or tank unit. And yes, I even designed one of those too. If anyone would be interested in seeing my designs (granted, I'm not a professional pixel artist) I would be happy to show them off here! And you can hear a couple of songs that DIDNT make it into the game on my self-titled soundcloud page. If you think the music would be worth paying for, let the devs know, and I will donate them. (I'm actually going to try updating my soundcloud with AvH tracks I haven't posted online yet right now) Link for anyone curious http://m.soundcloud.com/boomwolf (If ur on a PC, you might need to remove the "m" in the above link)
All hour ideas sound fantastic. They could supply them with a single IAP called "plus mode" or something similar. More vehicles, terrains and music. That sounds nice
I'm a bit confused, about what exactly will be included in the "missions" release. Is this newer release just the original game, with added multiplayer? It will include the random mission generator? Can the onslaught be unlocked thru this app, or will this make a entirely seperate app? I'd frankly rather have all the features in one app if it could be possible... That would mean you could change The tittle of AvH 2.0 to just "AvH 2: The onslaught" or something then, right? Also.... I'd like to think up a better name for te new release for suggestions. How about : Aliens Versus Humans: First contact? Aliens Versus Humans (Versus Humans Edition) (Lol) AvH : Crossfire Edition AvH: The Original Assault OR. The First Assault AvH : Alien Dawn
AvH: Missions is a new marketing method. I guess it will be a prequel. It is a reboot on the original 1.0 content where the focus is to get your soldiers trained so you're ready when the Onslaught begins. We haven't entirely decided yet. But the thinking is it will either be: Free 25 missions with IAP for PvP. Run through game center. First 5 missions free with IAP for the remaining 20 missions and IAP for PvP. Clearly anyone that has bought AvH already would not be a candidate for missions as they already have it. Although they can download it for free and only buy PvP if they want to play head to head with their friends or auto-match with strangers (even me). Having a free app hopefully means we'll get more downloads. With more people playing our free app, we are hoping that some will buy the rest of the content and hopefully some will also buy AvH: The Onslaught. We honestly don't know. If we don't finally break through, then we will stop investing in it. It has been over 1.5 years and we thought we would have had better traction by now. First, it is a niche title. Second, it is also retro that the diehard X-Com fans are willing to overlook, but it isn't exactly a mainstream title. Perhaps it will never break through. That said, it has been a great experience. We love connecting with our fans and the majority of feedback we get through our support email is along the lines of "thank you for letting me replay my favorite game from the 90s". I was one of those people in the 90s getting my butt handed to me - usually by those damn floaters. So I can relate. I am my own target audience. We can already see that our ranking did spike when XCOM came out and we are now slipping down into oblivion again. So our fingers are crossed to see how things play out over the next few weeks. AvH: Missions is essentially done. Testing is lengthy as there are lots of complexities with head to head combat. Like throwing a proximity grenade and then shooting it from a distance with a molotov wasn't working correctly. Anyway, it is almost fully baked and we've been testing a lot over the last few days. It will be interesting to see how it all plays out. Al(ien)
