Between 9 and 11 in the morning for me, which is a massive pain in the arse, since I work in the afternoons/evenings and the mornings are the only real free time I have, so...
Time to kick off MIND BLOWING MAY on GOG with... Fez. Install the latest version of Excel and give it a shot for $9.99. Uhh... oh, the indie Gem Promo of the week is Avadon: The Black Fortress for $3.99. So, it's real cheap if you didn't already get it during one of the Humble Indie Bundles.
Oh, now THIS is going to be mind blowing. It's contest time, again! GOG has 66 indie games now, and you could win them all! Or you could be one of the eleven people who win 6 indie games!
Yes... inescapable lameness CAN be "mind blowing".
Well, errr, back to "Risen". :cool:
I'm less concerned about their definition of "mind blowing", but I'm very concerned that this could easily turn from "Mind Blowing May" into "Inter-May". Subwar is technically owned by Interplay now, and GOG has had 3 mystery games from Interplay in the pipeline since November. Screamer 2 was the first, and this is number 2. It's hard NOT to think that "mind blowing" could just be hype for a bunch of Interplay titles they announced SIX MONTHS AGO.
It's friday, so it's time for your GOG weekend wrapup. Your weekend deal this week is most of the EA catalogue for 60%. Ultima, Wing Commander, the Bullfrog classics, the only real problem I have is that it's too soon to have this sale, and all of the new stuff they added (Syndicate Wars and the like) are not included. Seriously, GOG, you couldn't have waited another month and given us Activision instead? Ugh, whatever, hopefully Bioforge will hold me over until then.
Also, here's This Week on GOG for a recap and game hint. Your hint is that it's not a classic, but it's a tribute to the classics, and it'd make a nice book.
I remember seeing video game deal bins half full of Nox everywhere for about 10-15 bucks or something back when that was dirt cheap. I never picked it up, but I was always a bit curious about it, since they seemed to have overestimated their sales by so much. According to the game card on GOG it's not half bad, so I wonder why it apparently didn't become much of a hit in Norway at the time.
And mind blowing May is officially over. Turns out when that employee said "mind blowing releases" they meant "mind blowing releases FOR ME", and the releases may or may not be mind blowing for the general GOG audience.
Do you like really old computer RPGs? Do you long for the days where you had to grind out rats at 2xp per kill just so you could level up to a point where you wouldn't die after 10 seconds of combat? Are you fans of not being able to hit anything because you didn't put enough points into dexterity? Well, you'll love today's release, which is Eschalon: Book 1 for the launch price of $2.99. But hey, maybe that's not your thing. You can instead enjoy today's other release which is... Eschalon: Book 2? Why are these being sold seperately? Whatever, Book 2 is the launch price of $4.99. I hope your mind is sufficiently blown, because GOG employees said these games will blow your mind!
Do you like really old computer RPGs? Do you long for the days where you had to grind out rats at 2xp per kill just so you could level up to a point where you wouldn't die after 10 seconds of combat? Are you fans of not being able to hit anything because you didn't put enough points into dexterity? Well, you'll love today's release, which is Eschalon: Book 1 for the launch price of $2.99. But hey, maybe that's not your thing. You can instead enjoy today's other release which is... Eschalon: Book 2? Why are these being sold seperately? Whatever, Book 2 is the launch price of $4.99. I hope your mind is sufficiently blown, because GOG employees said these games will blow your mind!
I hope your mind is sufficiently blown, because GOG employees said these games will blow your mind!
I love the first game so much! The second one is still kicking my royal ass.
Those games ARE mindblowingly good. Stop being sarcastic Gibbey.
I put 7 hours into book 2 and they are wasted on created 3 characters that just aren't good enough to get far into the game. I get bloody murdered by wolves(?) and I should know what I'm doing. I love it when a RPG does this.
Those games aren't really that old and a steal at this price. If you like old RPGs these will be just what you want.
Hey look, it's yet another Square Enix game that isn't Final Fantasy 7. Check out Deathtrap Dungeon for only $5.99. No clue what this is, and the reviews make it seem like a very meh game.
I'm a firm believer that people have at least a tiny bit of persistence, knowledge of how the alphabet comes together into words and functioning hands in one way or another.
OK man, if you're going to do this, do it right. Here's a link to the pretty punny Adventurers Assemble bundle. 60% off a bunch of indie adventure games, and whatever TLJ qualifies as. Oh, and Carmageddon is half off for some reason, but that one ends Sunday night/Monday morning.
OK man, if you're going to do this, do it right. Here's a link to the pretty punny Adventurers Assemble bundle. 60% off a bunch of indie adventure games, and whatever TLJ qualifies as. Oh, and Carmageddon is half off for some reason, but that one ends Sunday night/Monday morning.
Are you saying that Dreamfall, Botanicula and Incredipede are more of adventures than The Longest Journey?
You forgot to tell us the hint. Are you going to make us watch a 2 minute long video to find out?
No, I mean that TLJ isn't really an indie game as far as I know. Also, people in the TWoG news post are already talking about the hint. Ehh, whatever, it's that the game "gives you 64 chances to reign chaos for money and prestige".
Ah, I see. Yeah, that's a tricky one, since they did get publisher money from various sources at the time. If I remember correctly the Norwegian version was self published but they used other publishers for the convenience of localizations and distribution in other markets. It's been a long time since I've been interested in the specifics of it though, so I might be talking out of my ass. But as far as I know, they do hold all rights for IP and publishing now.
It's survey time, it's survey time! Yes or no, would you like to be able to purchase official GOG merchandise? How about get coupon codes for discounts on computer peripherals? Cast your vote here.
Today on GOG, we have more adventure game content that isn't from Sierra. First off is the classic Gem Promo of the week, which is The 7th Guest for $3.99. Next up we have the latest offering from Daedalic Entertainment, The Night of the Rabbit for pre-order. Buy it now for $19.99, and get a free copy of the original Deponia. Please note that this one, for some odd reason because it was made by a German developer, does NOT have a German language option, and in fact does NOT have voice overs in anything other than English.
Next up we have the latest offering from Daedalic Entertainment, The Night of the Rabbit for pre-order. Buy it now for $19.99, and get a free copy of the original Deponia. Please note that this one, for some odd reason because it was made by a German developer, does NOT have a German language option, and in fact does NOT have voice overs in anything other than English.
Very odd, though also explainable. And you really have to pat the Daedalic guys on the backs that they DO make an attempt at explanation:
I work at Deadalic, in business development.
Please let me explain the situation with the German language before we get nailed to the wall ).
When Daedalic started the production of The Night of the Rabbit, the company needed to bring in external money in order to be able to fund the development. The reason being that Daedalic as a business is still not a company that's rich enough to be fully independent. Yes, as much as we like to be, we simply aren't. Our games get good ratings and some of them sell really well (the Deponia series), but this is still not enough to say "let's do a new $500.000 game" and just start the production on our own.
The external money in this industry can come from three sources: (1) a loan against company assets - not possible in our case, as we don't own much; (2) an investment form a third party - not possible in our case, as Daedalic is still chaotically independent, meaning loads of creativity, nice people and smiles in the hallways, but no "organizational chart" or "cahsflow plan" or "company prospectus" - we simple don't speak that language (yet); we will, one day, but not when we started the development of TNotR and not even now; and finally, (3) a pre-sales of the product we want to develop to a distributor, against future sales - and this is what we've done with The Night of the Rabbit, pre-selling it to the German distributor.
This pre-sale allowed us to develop the game and we're very thankful to the company that trusted in us so much that they were willing to advance money based on our concept, more than a year away from the completion date. However, no lunch is free in this world, and there was a catch in this case just as well: under the contract, we pre-sold both the retail and the digital rights. Meaning, we can't make a decision on our own as to how, and where, and at what price to offer German version digitally - we have to have our partner's approval.
Now, our partner in this case is a German distributor. A very well-organized company with excellent reputation and one major know-how: how to ship and sell retail boxes. They are fantastically good at that. And without their advance, we wouldn't be able to produce this title. But at the same time, they are also pretty protective, and they want to make sure that German version digitally is available at the same price as in retail. The retail price being Euro 34.99, i.e. a bit over $40.
Since GOG offers "one world, one price concept", we had two options. Or in fact, three:
a) not to offer TNotR on GOG at all; just sell through Steam, where we can set the German price to be 1:1 of German retail price, the Russian price to be 1:1 of Russian retail price, same for Czech Republic, Brazil, Poland, etc.
b) to offer TNotR on GOG for $40. thus making every country in the world pay the German (high) retail price for this product. And while in the retail edition, you have soundtrack, posters, etc. - a lot of goodies, it's a great box all in all, - in digital edition you'll have only the game and the soundtrack.
c) to offer TNotR on GOG for $20... on the condition that we don't break the contract because we're not selling German version at such price.
We reviewed all of these options, and decided that (c) is the option that will benefit the majority of all players. Not all, mind you - but the majority. Just like with Russians, BTW, where in retail the Russian version of the game is 299 RUR ($9.99), but they have to pay $19.99 on GOG, as there's simply no way around managing prices region by region.
This decision is not ideal.
But it's the best that we could do under the circumstances.
Just to be clear: we approached our German distribution partner and offered to "buy back" the German localization rights, so that we could offer German on GOG. But they were not interested. And so, considering alternatives exhausted, we listed the current version, at $19.99, with 7 languages - excluding German.
I'm not proud of this decision. In fact, this made me quite mad when I realized that this is the way we'll have to go forward. But then, without our German partner we wouldn't be able to fund the game, and if they don't want to let us offer German for under $40, then what can we do? Tell them to go to hell - after helping us make this game possible? Yes, we'll never ever (as long as I work for Daedalic) will sign again a contract with similar prohibition. And yet with The Night of the Rabbit, we had to play with the cards that we've been dealt.
One more thing: the game will be available on Steam in 2 editions, regular and premium. These will be multi-lingual, 8 languages. But even there, in Germany only Premium will be available, at Euro 29.99, based on the same demand: that we do not undercut the retail sales.
Are we proud of this? No. We believe in GOG's policy and we respect GOG's community. So yes, we deserve the criticism. But please also understand the reasons behind this suboptimal decision: without pre-sales to our distribution partner, we would not have made this game. And then it would be worse than this, really, because Matt Kempke's world would have remained on paper.
Please accept my and my colleagues's sincere apologies for this inconvenience and please be assured that it never was, and never will be, a part of our policy to discriminate any particular region or location - in fact, it's the opposite, and as you can see, TNotR the first-ever Daedalic title to ship in 8 languages at launch. We hope that as we get more successful sales-wise, we're able to offer even more (Italian, for example).
Hope this clears up the situation a bit.
Although I wasn't convinced by the trailers, I might give TNotR a go to support this kind of open communication. It would be the gog version though - so not in their and my native language.
Today, GOG brings us Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude, completely uncut and uncensored for only $5.99. Dear GOG. When I said I wanted more stuff from Sierra, THIS ISN'T WHAT I MEANT! Ugh... what else we got... oh, a cRPG. Check out Anvil of Dawn, an FPRPG from Ubisoft for only $5.99 as well.
Comments
But hey, off topic.
Oh, now THIS is going to be mind blowing. It's contest time, again! GOG has 66 indie games now, and you could win them all! Or you could be one of the eleven people who win 6 indie games!
Well, errr, back to "Risen". :cool:
I'm less concerned about their definition of "mind blowing", but I'm very concerned that this could easily turn from "Mind Blowing May" into "Inter-May". Subwar is technically owned by Interplay now, and GOG has had 3 mystery games from Interplay in the pipeline since November. Screamer 2 was the first, and this is number 2. It's hard NOT to think that "mind blowing" could just be hype for a bunch of Interplay titles they announced SIX MONTHS AGO.
Also, here's This Week on GOG for a recap and game hint. Your hint is that it's not a classic, but it's a tribute to the classics, and it'd make a nice book.
"It makes one hell of a book".... errr... good story??
Basilisk's "Eschalon" "books" seem a good guess.
Are you hinting that they might be...remakes of something?
Basically the dude says we'll be getting some cRPGs, whatever those are.
Stuff like Fallout or Ultima.
Those games ARE mindblowingly good. Stop being sarcastic Gibbey.
I put 7 hours into book 2 and they are wasted on created 3 characters that just aren't good enough to get far into the game. I get bloody murdered by wolves(?) and I should know what I'm doing. I love it when a RPG does this.
Those games aren't really that old and a steal at this price. If you like old RPGs these will be just what you want.
Also, new Mac games ahoy. Evil Genius, Syndicate Wares, Rise of the Triad, Blake Stone: Planet Strike, Guilty Gear X2, Guilty Gear Isuka, Strike Commander, Slipstream 5000, Darklands and Litil Divil all have Mac support now.
I'm a firm believer that people have at least a tiny bit of persistence, knowledge of how the alphabet comes together into words and functioning hands in one way or another.
But that doesn't look fun at all!
And check out This Week on GOG for the recap and hint.
Are you saying that Dreamfall, Botanicula and Incredipede are more of adventures than The Longest Journey?
You forgot to tell us the hint. Are you going to make us watch a 2 minute long video to find out?
No, I mean that TLJ isn't really an indie game as far as I know. Also, people in the TWoG news post are already talking about the hint. Ehh, whatever, it's that the game "gives you 64 chances to reign chaos for money and prestige".
Nice. Just got 6 new games for a whiff under $26. The dude is away for 3 weeks from this evening, so it'll be nice to have these to keep me company!
...but I guess no one here is without, so I'll skip the "go buy it" part.
("Limited Edition")
But yet, I still grabbed digital copies of both (Dreamfall just now!
(To cheap NOT to if you ask me! XD)
Very odd, though also explainable. And you really have to pat the Daedalic guys on the backs that they DO make an attempt at explanation:
Although I wasn't convinced by the trailers, I might give TNotR a go to support this kind of open communication. It would be the gog version though - so not in their and my native language.
That is of course impressive. Although...