There are many different views surrounding DLC. The views vary depending on who is looking at it. I will lay out some general viewpoints on DLC, and discuss them in further depth.
When a consumer sees DLC certain things run through their head:
If it’s free, it is picked up without question.
If it costs money, many people feel more then $10 is too much.
If it is released at the same time as the game and it costs money, many people won’t even buy the game because of it.
When a developer releases DLC, there are a few reasons:
They want to boost their sales and make more money through the DLC.
They didn’t have enough time to finish and release the rest of the game later
The game is good enough to continually add more stuff to extend the play time of the game.
The Consumer’s viewpoints broken down:
Free DLC: Pick it up! even if you don’t have the game or don’t like what it is for, pick up the free DLC anyway. DLC that is free doesn’t always remain free. After you download it once, you can always delete it and redownload it.
The Price: The price is a big factor that determines whether a person purchases DLC.
A good price is about $5. Someone sees $5 DLC they are more willing to look at it and look into if they want to buy it.
$10 DLC is looked at only if the DLC is for a game your really enjoyed.
More then $10, and it better be a bundle. A single piece of DLC for more then $10 will only be purchased by the wealthy. Or, you really really enjoyed the game, and the DLC is massive!
DLC released along side of the game: If it’s not free, many people feel cheated out of the game and they feel that the company is taking as much money as they can. This gives companies a bad name and companies should never do this! Many people don’t even bother picking up a game if the company Charges for DLC on the same day. What is even worse, is when a company charges for DLC that is already in the game, and all you doing is buy a key that unlocks that bit of content.
The Producer’s viewpoints broken down:
They want to boost their sales and make more money through the DLC: This is not a smart idea, you will make more money in the short run, but prolonged practice will cause a decrease in sales when people begin to realize that you are taking as much money as you can out of their pockets. Many developer’s reputations are permanently scarred because they practiced this.
They didn’t have enough time to finish and release the rest of the game later: This is fine, if handled correctly. Do not pull a chunk of the game out because you couldn’t finish, and then release it later. This was seen in Assassin’s Creed 2, where the developers pulled out 2 entire sequences because they didn’t have time to finish them. They then released them later on as DLC for $5 each. The price is right, but they were supposed to already be in the game, so you shouldn’t be charging for them. God of War 3, had to cut a chunk out of the ending of the game due to time restraints, but the developers are saying that if they get around to finishing it, they will release it for free. This will work for them in the long run very well. It will get people to hold on to their copy of the game until the DLC is released, and when it is released other people will buy more copies to play it.
The game is good enough to continually add more stuff to extend the play time of the game: This is perfectly fine. In games like Fallout 3 and borderlands, the game is good enough and popular enough for DLC to be released. It will keep the game popular as well as add more to it. The DLC that was added to Fallout3, and Borderlands is big enough to constitute being DLC. The armory of general knoxx was about a gigabyte of memory and only for $10. This is how you properly release DLC.
Animation company Gainex has announced that they will be releasing a sequel to Gurren Lagann Parallel Works! Gurren Lagann was an extremely popular Mecha anime that is now licensed in the US by Bandai. The show may have ended nearly two and a half years ago, but who says you need to let a finished product stand alone?
Gurren Lagann’s story was based upon a desolate world where humans live underground in tunnels dug by their own drills, fearful of the Beastmen who rule the world above. Until Simon, a resident of one of the towns, discovers a key to control a giant “Gunmen” named Lagann. Then the battle for the dominance of the world ensues.
However this is in the past and Gainex has already released Gurren Lagann Parallel Works, which is a collection of alternative universes and stories that are shown in 3-4 minute music videos set to the anime’s original soundtrack. These vary from being a tantalizing taste of what could have been, to completely odd. Though some may bear extreme resemblance to a few video game opening movies, such as Wild Arms 3.
However Gainex has now announced that Parallel Works 2 will arrive on May 26.
Personally I can not wait for this to come out. Gurren Lagann was full of comedy and action, and left you wanting for more. It’d be interesting to see if they were to take any of these changed settings and create an actual branch anime out of them.
The opening video for the original anime can be seen below.
Earlier a posted a trailer for the game Brink, being developed by Bethesda. If you enjoyed the trailer, you probably want to know more.
So here it is, 5 videos for your viewing Pleasure. What does everyone think of the game so far? with singleplayer, co-op with up to 7 friends, and online multiplayer. (Which will most likely comprise of 8 resistence and 8 security). Brink will be available on PC, Xbox 360, and PS3. (Current release date is September/7/2010). Learn more at http://www.brinkthegame.com/
SMART – Free running on the environment
Character Customization
An Objective perspective, Container City parts 1-3
This week Major speaks to Infinity Wards’ very own Robert Bowling regarding the highly anticipated Modern Warfare 2 Stimulus Map Pack, find out all u need to know straight from the source Mr @fourzerotwo
Game Name: Catacombs
Platforms: IPHONE / iPOD Touch
Publisher(s): InMotion Software
Genre(s): Action
Release Date: 18/02/2010
ESRB Rating: (Everyone 9+) Infrequent/Mild Realistic Violence
Price: .99cents US
Buy now :
Are you a fan of classic style Gauntlet games ? Well your in luck. iPhone game developer InMotion Softwarehave just released a cool little dual analog style controlled Hack & Slash Dungeon Crawler called Catacombs and today MasterAbbott has strapped on his warriors armour and helmet, picked up his axe of awesomeness + 20 and entered the Catacombs to bring you this video review.
As with all video reviews, there is less reading and more watching. Catacombs is a top down dual analog action dungeon style game modelled after the legendary Gauntlet series. It contains of a total of 24 levels (you have an option to purchase another 24 level mission called the forrest as a DLC for an additional 99cents) with three difficulty settings. The game is only single player game with no multi-player capabilities, its a shame as playing online with friends or even via bluetooth would of made it that little more fun.
Check out the video review :
Graphically for an iPhone game, InMotion have done quite a remarkable job. The dungeons are well designed and have a nice amount of detail to them, enemies you encounter look realistic are not just little blobs of sprites chasing you around the dungeon.
Sound effects are clear and crisp with the sound of crumbling skeleton bones and potion pick ups echoing in the dark and dingy halls of the dungeon makes the experience even more realistic. Music was good but does get a little repetitive after a while and might force you to mute the sound and just leave the sound effects which is what I ended up doing.
Along your adventure you battle, Skeletons, Spiders and Slimes and that’s about it. I personally was looking for more of a variety buy it didn’t come. Some of the Skeletons had a red glow to them but they were still skeletons. A mini boss every few levels would of been a good but that didn’t happen. He must of been on holidays or something.
As you venture forth trying to escape the dungeons you do gain experience and gold. Unfortunately these two classic building blocks for RPG games are not really used. You level up but you don’t get to allocate any points or skills towards your character in any way, and once I reached level 15 I stopped leveling up (this was about a little over half way through the adventure) . The gold you pick up is only really used as a score indicator and nothing else. I was desperately looking for an opportunity to haggle with a troll or something down in the dungeons for a new axe but that too didn’t happen. But we have to take into consideration that Catacombs was modelled after Gauntlet and back in the day when we all played Gauntlet you collected gold for high scores and didn’t really care what level your warrior was as long as he survived.
Catacombs is a fun easy to pick up and play action game with a fair amount of replayability and very appealing on the eyes and for only 99cents its a bargain.
Capsule Computers gives Catacombs a 7.5 Capsule Out Of 10
I’m sure many of us have either heard or been the source of some of the complaints about FFXIII being extremely linear in the beginning of the game. Being as there are no towns, and no shops at all. Well that may change next time around.
Motomu Toriyama, the game director behind the 13 installment, has been quoted saying the following:
“Personally, the Final Fantasy games that I have worked on have been very story-driven, so in terms of the development I wanted to, of course, use my personal strengths which where those.”
“The next title that we will create will have those (RPG) elements, and the improvements to those elements that you (the fans) were mentioning.”
I say Final Fantasy XV, because FFXIV is already slated to be an MMORPG whose beta has just opened up to possible enrollment.
So far I’ve gotten as far as Disc 2 on FFXIII, however I am actually enjoying the linear game play and loving the storyline. Though from what I have heard the gameplay expands into being more open worlded after arriving on Disc 3. So although the beginning may be linear, the entire game is not.
Especially with how some games put the storyline on the shelf and focus mostly on the action and the looks of the game, it is refreshing to see a well fleshed out story with intriguing characters (standard J-RPG archetypes included even).
Though from the looks of that statement, he was truly not expecting that many people to dislike the new changes to the series. It seems that they will be returning the game more to its RPG elements, including towns and everything that was removed.
Though Motomu Toriyama has also tried to explain his reasoning for removing these elements
“In the previous Final Fantasy games on non-high definition consoles, we were able to kind of take everyone’s ideas and include them in the games.
I call it a bento box system, where you have all of the different little things in there. So we had minigames or towns were you were able to talk to all of the townspeople. But with the HD console you’re not really able to do that because it takes so long to develop.”
However Bioware seemed to have no trouble making even small towns for Dragon Age. And neither did Tri-Ace when they made Star Ocean: The Last Hope. So the question is why couldn’t Square Enix?
The Main character (name unknown) seems to have been injured by some means.
This game seems to take place before the first ones, due to the lack of Augmentations, and instead bionics.
A hidden Blade? could this be more oriented towards free running and stealth, then gun flying?
The main character doesn’t seem to have his bionics under full control, since the glass cracked when he is drinking, we will probably start out without bionics and gain them early on and learn with the main character.
MasterAbbott recently sat down with Brian Howard, President of InMotion Software the creators of Catacombs for the Apple iPhone / iPod Touch a dual analog action/rpg style game modelled after the classic Gauntlet. Brian discusses in fine detail the all there is to know about this fantastic title and a few extra pieces of valuable information about InMotion Software and the challenges of creating entertaining and productive titles.
Enjoy the interview :
Question 1 – Tell us a little bit about InMotion Software. How were they created, the origin behind the name InMotion Software, when was it first established, and how many employees does it have today.
InMotion Software (IMS) was incorporated in August of 2008, but it really began with my curiosity about the whole osx and iPhone ecosystem back in February of 2008. At the time Apple had not made public any official plans for what we now know as the App Store, but with the jailbroken community being so active, I knew it was only a matter of time, so I began to delve into Apple’s development platform and I came up with the concept for our first App, PocketDyno (an accelerometer based dynamometer app that measures and reports drag racing statistics), that released in September of 2008. In the nearly two years since, we have grown to 10 employees.
Question 2 – What do you believe have been your greatest challenges designing games for the mobile phone market ? Especially games for the iPhone/iTouch.
The challenge is to consistently deliver great entertainment with high production value at a low cost.
Here’s what you’re up against as a developer: Every day 680+ new apps are released (there’s some junk in there to be sure, but increasingly there’s great stuff too). Now here’s the rub; the average game price is $1.36. It gets even tougher. 80% of the money is made in the top 100, probably 60% + in the top 25 alone. So, there’s great concentration of income in a very few titles.
Realistically, unless you are a big-name studio, you have to plan on making your money in the top 200 to 300. And this brings me full circle, back to my first statement: just build great stuff, do it fast, and keep costs low – every single time.
Question 3 – What do you believe is the main reason why the InMotion Software games are such a success ?
We invest in our tools and our people. Each time out we get better at doing what we do. For example, we can now develop a game in 6 to 7 weeks that just one year ago would have taken 5 months.
Question 4 – For people that don’t know anything about, Catacombs. How would you describe the game to them and the meaning behind the games name.
Catacombs is an arcade style, fantasy hack & slash game – pure and simple. A lot of users describe it as reminiscent of Gauntlet, minus the multiplayer.
It’s easy to pickup and play, has superb controls, very fluid animation, and great graphics. There are 24 levels to play (plus another 24 if you’re willing to pay an additional $0.99). If easy isn’t your style, the game can be played in “no-mercy survival mode.”
Question 5 – What extra features/modes/ etc did you add to make Catacombs stand out in the crowd of other RPG style games that are out in the market at the moment.
Just a small correction – it is not really a full RPG game, although it does have some very light-RPG elements.We wanted to emphasize a more arcade feel with the game. It’s supposed to be more pick-up-and-play than your typical RPG.
I think what makes Catacombs stand out is really its fast paced action, silky smooth feel, and excellent controls.
Question 6 – How long was the development cycle for Catacombs. Could you briefly explain the start to finish phases: storyboading, concept art etc
After finishing up our 4 month crunch with “I Dig It Expeditions”, we wanted to do something light that we could do in a reasonable amount of time. Catacombs really started as a weekend project and grew from there.
The lead developer spent 7 weeks, while the other team members spent 5 weeks. We are working on an update right now based on initial user feedback that will really make the game standout. We expect this to take add about 2 weeks to the development cycle.
We do a brainstorm session with the team, after that the designer wrote-up the collective results, but adds a lot of details. The artist goes to work laying out concept art, the programmers go to work on the tech, and the designer starts working with our level design tool to build the world that will be the game. From here on out we just work tightly as a team – with a lot of back and forth between the team members.
We always try to get a “demo” working fast, usually in a few days, playing it often to make sure it is fun, then layer in the final elements as they become available. We really don’t follow a waterfall design methodology – we rely instead on a “rapid-development, test, and adjust” cycle. With the cycle times we must achieve we can’t afford to do a heavy pre-production design phase.
Question 7 – What engine / technology is used in getting Catacombs up and running on the iPhone, how many developers / programmers were involved in creating Catacombs.
We use our own proprietary engine that we call Emblazed. We also some license third-party stuff like F-MOD for sound, and Chipmunk physics. There were 5 people directly involved in building game assets, 3 of which are programmers.
Question 8 – Where there any issues or speed bumps along the way in creating Catacombs ? And what did the development team do to overcome them.
The Catacombs project went pretty smoothly. We did get a bit behind our own aggressive production schedule at one point, so we had to crunch for a week.
Question 9 – What was your main reason for creating a fun and exciting RPG game like Catacombs ? What other games if any were influential in aiding the creation of Catacombs.
Like I mentioned earlier. This is a game that the programmers really wanted to make and kept prodding me about. So in a sense, we did it because we thought it would be fun. It should be pretty obvious that Gauntlet was a big inspiration.
Question 10 – How would you describe the game mechanics of Catacombs. What do players need to do to succeed.
Kill the baddies, then get the hell out of the dungeon.
Question 11 – Are there any patches or updates planned for Catacombs, if so what will be included in the updates.
Our first update will be ready to go in a few days, probably sometime this week. We want to stay a little closed-lipped on the exact contents, because until its fully tested and ready to go the list can change.
Question 12 – Please explain the list of characters currently available in Catacombs, Classes, Skills, etc. Will there be new characters available in future updates.
Currently, players can choose to play as the archetypal warrior, archer, or mage. Each character has its own set of strengths and weaknesses, which encourages experimentation and replay-ability. New characters could extend that experience even further, so it is certainly something that is a possibility for the future. We’ll just have to see!
Question 13 – Trophies / Achievements are what drive a number of players to play games now-days .. Does Catacombs have goals to accomplish or achievements to unlock. And if not will there be any possibilities of adding them in future releases / updates.
Regarding achievements, that’s a great question, and has sparked a lot of discussion among the team members. We’re interested in exploring any ideas that extend the gameplay experience. We have some really exciting stuff coming in the next update so stay tuned!
Question 14 – What can players / consumers expect from InMotion Software moving forward. Are there already plans or upcoming games that you are able to let your fans know about ?
We’ve taken a bit of a departure. We are in the final stages of completing a cartoonish game that you feel comfortable giving to your 4-year-old. It’s called “Stickman Rocks.” It’s about a our intrepid stickman who climbs a mountain collecting stars while avoiding obstacles, like parachuting penguins, spitting snakes, pooping birds, a snow-ball throwing yeti, and more.
Now here’s the fun part. We’ve play tested it. Adults start laughing within 30 seconds of firing up the game. We also play tested it with small children, 3-4 years old. The result? After 45 minutes of continuous play – the kids all screamed when we took the iPod away. Stickman will be ready in about 2-3 weeks.
We have some other surprises up our sleaves. Stay tuned
Question 15 – Finally.. What do you love most working at InMotion Software?
Are kidding me? WE MAKE VIDEO GAMES…FOR A LIVING!
Capsule Computers woud like to thank Brian for his time in answering these questions. If you haven’t tried Catacombs on the iPhone or any of the other great titles from InMotion check out their website and visit the iTunes store and grab yourself some great titles for a fantastic low price.
Ah the good old days when you could turn on Cartoon Network and see animated violence. When men could fly in the sky and throw colorful balls of energy at each other hoping to brutally defeat their opponents through giant explosions or by beating them to a pulp?
Over the past year Dragon Ball Z has been re-mastered and re-produced in Japan. Cut down from the extremely long 291 episodes, Dragon Ball Kai is only 100 episodes long, saving viewers from long stare downs and repeated fight scenes again and again. It follows the exact same story line as the original Dragon ball Z, minus a few stories that were only in the anime.
This series is now coming to American televisions in the form of…. Nickelodean? The same people who bring you spongebob are now bringing you “Dragon Ball Z Kai.” The only bad thing about this news is, because of their producers, blood will most likely be removed again. It will be interesting to see how it turns out. Be sure to catch it on May 10th!
Here is the opening video from the show currently in Japan.
What’s everyone think about Dragon Ball coming to Nic ?
