Universal ARC Squadron: Redux - (by Psyonix) [Universal]

Discussion in 'iPhone and iPad Games' started by Sanuku, Oct 16, 2013.

  1. Echoen

    Echoen Well-Known Member

    May 16, 2012
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    I bought the original on day 1. I support these guys. Get this awesome game and toss em some love!
     
  2. kaibosh

    kaibosh Well-Known Member

    Jun 14, 2012
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    What the &@$* is going on in this thread? No one is getting "ripped off", if you bought the original game it is still there to download and works on iOS 7. The Dev explained quite clearly (several times) than an entire revamping of the code for a new multi OS base meant breaking compatibility with the original game.

    The numbers are very clear. Not that many people bought the game when it came out, then when it was reduced to free for a short time everyone pounced on it, and possibly the IAP wasn't tuned in time in order to allow for financial success. Rather than screw over the people who DID buy the game, the Dev has graciously re-released an IAP driven version of the game that will be released on multiple systems. He also took the time to explain all of this here, quite nicely.

    Whether you like 'freemium' games or not, the developers are trying to feed their kids and if the original game didn't stay on the radar long enough this was a very respectable way for the Dev to convert his profit method.

    All that aside, I sit in a bizarre loophole in all this. I bought the game when it came out, but never played it. The real question is, with all the tweaks and updates am I better off just grabbing the new one to play that or will the new IAP model make the original game the better experience? Not *all* IAP is bad! Foursaken has shown us that it can be done so right that most people buy it just to thank the Devs and fund more games of that caliber.
     
  3. awp69

    awp69 Well-Known Member

    Oct 30, 2009
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    #63 awp69, Oct 17, 2013
    Last edited: Oct 17, 2013
    The main issue was that it was pulled from the store. Most devs that release a freemium version leave the original on the store. This caused some, including myself, to worry. There HAVE been cases where an app can't be accessed from download history. So there was some reason to be concerned. Also for those that spent not only money on the original version, but also IAPs, it's still frustrating to learn that the version you spent money on will no longer be supported.

    Anyway, I'm over it and while I understand the issue with the new version, I still don't completely understand why the paid version was pulled. Yes, it may take a little more to maintain both. But you know what? I'm a computer programmer and have to do it ALL the time to keep my company's customers happy.

    That combined with a lot of devs on the store who have screwed people over was enough to at least be suspicious.

    So while I already apologized for overreacting, I also think it's equally as wrong for people jumping down our throats for voicing concerns. Don't rip down those who just want to make sure consumers are treated with equal respect.

    BTW, anyone who has been around these forums knows that I am a huge supporter of indie devs, but I also have had experiences with some that weren't so concerned about the gamers who buy their apps so I also don't automatically give all devs a free pass. I'm sure these devs had no bad intentions but there are others that don't care about their reputation or the gamer's experience.
     
  4. makitango

    makitango Well-Known Member

    Feb 6, 2011
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    Since this thread developed quite interesting I thought I throw in my two cents. I am a buyer of the original app, and I did not wait for free/sale stuff or that. I really wanted to buy it as it was meant to be for a really, really premium title where you could see on each corner in each pixel that this was hard and great work. So thanks for that, Psyonix. :)
    But what I don't understand is why they would not just update the original app (technically it's just a replacement, the App Store does not "patch" apps in the traditional way) and include some code to handle old savegames properly. I guess that is the reason why so many folks here are so suspicious, and I myself just wonder why that is - not that I do not believe the dev.

    Perhaps some insight in why that happened (or did not happen) would calm all of us down. ;)
     
  5. PsyonixDan

    PsyonixDan Member

    Nov 1, 2012
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    #65 PsyonixDan, Oct 19, 2013
    Last edited: Oct 19, 2013
    A part of it was the save file incompatibility. We could have done save file patching to fix the save file transfer, and really that would have been fine on its own if it was a simple decision, but that was only really a small part of it.

    Because we did a pretty good sized scoring rebalance (detailed somewhere in a previous page) initially for what was going to be "the Android build", scores that people have on the leaderboards in a number of the levels are simply impossible now, so that would have required us resetting leaderboards in a patch scenario for iOS.

    We also removed some content that we found either extraneous or boring. For weapons, we removed the laser and burst laser, as they were basically duplicate functionality of the missile and barrage missile, with the somewhat annoying/confusing mechanic of charge up time for the shot. We also completely removed the Asteroid Belt level as we found it to be pretty boring, and didn't have the resources available due to other projects to replace it.

    In the end, we were left with 3 choices; patch and reset/remove content and piss off a lot of people, only release the new version on Android and piss off a lot of people, or leave the old version alone for those that bought it and have Redux on iOS be the version that we steer new people towards. Since we weren't adding any content, it ended up being a decision of going with the one that would generally be best for all customers. Old version owners aren't missing anything by not playing Redux, new version players get a free version, and we didn't have to implement a save file patching, that while could have been tested to death, still avoids the risk of erasing people's save data if anything goes wrong.
     
  6. sweetdiss

    sweetdiss Well-Known Member

    Jun 15, 2009
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    This game was so good. Still hoping for a sequel someday.

    Have there been any other great 'star fox'-like games in the years since?
     
  7. anthony78

    anthony78 Well-Known Member

    Nov 13, 2015
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    Star Horizon is pretty good.
     

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