this is utterly irrelevant. A photographer takes a picture in a fraction of a second. Does that mean they should only be able to sell their photos for a penny a piece? Of course not. arn
play the game at canabalt.com and tell us if it still doesn't sound right, the game being created in 5 days, that is. Enjoy! HINT: a game developed for months doesn't mean it's a good game.
These pricing discussions are utterly pointless. People should either buy the game or not. It's like they think they can shame the developer into lowering the price. Well, I, for one, am glad that Adam Atomic is sticking to his guns.
Can I sign that petition, too? In all seriousness, this game has so many sweet details, it's just a joy to play.
I think that, taken out of context, the game is worth the price being asked. Easily. It's £1.79 for a fantastic game. But then you have to bring in that pesky context - free web version, Run and Mr.AahH!! at 59p - and the price does start to look expensive. I'm willing to pay it, because Canabalt in my pocket is a beautiful thing to have, but I can easily understand why we're having this debate. It's a great game - but you can get Mr.AahH!, Run and Skybound for the cost of this one game.
You guys are right, of course. I don't know a thing about game development and I would have thought this process would have taken longer than 5 days. I stand corrected! My appologies!!!
The question that I am interested in (this thread may not be the best place for it but it still interests me) is why are those games 99c/59p? Why is Galcon Labs only 99c? Why is Flight Control only 99c? (this implies that I think they should cost more, which is true, but it's obviously an open question) ALSO thank you guys for all the feedback so far, this is definitely our most exciting launch to date! Eric and I will keep reading the thread, but I at least will not be able to respond much for the next 10 days or so, as I'm off on a family trip! When I return to civilization I will find out what the market decided I guess ADVENTURES IN BUSINESS
Well worth the price I agree - and I myself thought, it's a bit expensive at first. But after having played the flashversion I couldn't resist. The fantastic animation, the pixel-art, the music and somehow sf-theme all add up to a wonderful experience of gameplay. Sure, you can get the mentioned games (as I already did buy them) but at least for me - and it might be a matter of taste - this is the best produced of those mentioned ones and I really enjoy to have this piece of art in my pocket. I just love it.
I liked paying for this. I donated to the web version and I'm happy to pay for this. Giving Adam more money means Adam makes more games and he is a developer I have a lot of respect and admiration for. Also I'd pay £1.79 for the music alone so having a fantastic game tacked on is brilliant value for money. This is only one man's opinion though.
These. I absolutely adore Canabalt, but laughed out loud when I saw the price of the iPod version. Context is everything on the App Store, and putting out anything at three times the price of a highly-polished competitor while lacking major features and having baffling system requirements is rarely a great business plan. (The absence of a Lite version, in particular, seems epically stupid. Many of us are slightly doubtful about how well the control will translate to the touchscreen, and would like to try it out. A Lite limited to 1000m would satisfy that doubt, and have people who liked the game drooling for the full version.) If I'm wrong I won't be too upset because it'd be good to see this game make money, but I won't be contributing while it's at such a silly price. $1.99 is a sale, at $2.99 I'm sticking with Run. And again, for all the people who don't get the point - it's not about a dollar, it's about context.
1. They think that those prices will generate higher volume of sales and therefore more profit, since unit costs are zero. This policy would seem to be borne out, certainly in the latter case, by the facts. (Flight Control came out with just one level, I'd be happy to bet quite a lot of money that that Flight Control priced at $2.99 would have sunk without trace. I certainly wouldn't have bought it.) OR 2. They want to share their game with as many people as possible while still making money, rather than just squeezing every last cent out of it. (Stands by for hysterical Americans screaming "SOCIALISM!"...) OR 3. A little from column A and a little from column B. It might be an irrational viewpoint taken in isolation, but when it's possible to make a million bucks out of selling a game at 99c, people to tend to view charging three times that much for something very very simple as greedy, no matter how many angry internet men shout that $3 for a great fun game is in itself a very reasonable price (which it is). And nobody likes greed. So perhaps there's also a 4. Bowing to the tyranny of a market which is used to getting awesome games for 99c.
Lack of a lite version... of a game that you can play in its entirety for free online... with the only difference being tapping with your finger or clicking your mouse? Seriously?
Just the amount of talk about price with this game tells a story in itself. You don't see this much chatter with most other games, because usually the developer has a slight feel for the market at the moment of release. That's just obviously not the case here. - Not with this much talk about price vs. content.
Yes, seriously. In a game with only one control, it's fairly important to know how well it works in a completely different format.
Imagine playing the flash game, but instead of clicking your mouse, you're using your finger. Just pretend your phone is the mouse. That is how it works.
You may have point about higher volumes of sales at $0.99, but as far as "wanting to share their game with as many people as possible", that makes no sense. We're talking about $3 here. That's not even expensive for an iPhone game. If people own an iDevice to begin with, they've probably already spent a bundle on games, most of which weren't 99c. Seriously, if someone can afford a dollar for a game, they can easily afford to spend another two. And although your gripe with the price of this game isn't based on money, i'll bet that most people's problem with the price of Canabalt is based solely on that. That, and being spoiled by all these devs frantically dropping the price of their games at a desperate attempt to keep them in the top 100.
