ATM I'm only thinking about it, nothing serious. How much would you pay for Empires on different engine, open world maps supported first, very few vehicles at the start, 3 classes and a commander? Key point in trying to get something like Minecraft/NS2 done is having dev team do some work, call it alpha and getting people to buy it while it's being supported through all development stages (alpha, beta, RC, release).
I know this is just a what if question but, you threw out too little information for an important question. Its hard to vote when we don't know what the 3 classes might be. What kind of engine? Also enable multi vote so we can say what we would pay for an alpha product and what we would pay for IF it gets finished.
1. Engineer, grenadier and rifleman of course. I won't pretend I know how add scout to make it fit vehicles/other classes. 2. Our own engine. 3. I'm not asking how much you'd pay if it would get finished separately because you can either buy it in alpha/beta stage or when finished. If I get 90% votes for "X USD when finished" it's a signal that whole thing just can't happen.
Depends on who the team was, and how likely it is they'd get it finished. If you go the NS2 route, no, because that means repeated delays with no substantial product delivered. If you go the minecraft route, charging $10 or so for a cool little game that stands by itself and just happens to be the alpha for your bigger game, then sure, I'd pay for it. Basically I'm paying for something soon, I'm not putting down money for something that might come in the future maybe if the planets align favourably, I'm paying for something I can play and enjoy and if you want to keep developing it after, all the better. The problem is that if the team has really anything to do with previous or existing empires devs, I'm going to assume it's going the NS2 route, because empires has never really been able to produce things in a timely fashion and playable. That's fine for a mod, but entirely unacceptable for a paid game.
Hard to say, I don't think I would ever pay twice for a game though. If I first pay for the alpha I would not want to pay again when the final game is released. It all boils down to whether the game looks good or not. If I, the consumer, feel that whatever you charge for your game is good value, I will pay.
if you voted $21-30 in working alpha stage please dont take out the scout. it isn't a primary class but used properly it is the glue that holds together a proper assault. ask any leader player. without the scout, tactics in empires are closer to that of point and click a la counterstrike. things that will be missed: smoke spam in order to - nullify spawning enemy reinforcements - move enemies from behind walls - conceal rushes stuns in order to - stop vehicles (ie cv) sabotage in order to - combo building kill (only way to drop buildings with engies up the ass) well, i've got to go now but theres so many reasons why i think the scout is indispensable to empires gameplay. i think it is the best squad lead class.
I might have explained it the wrong way but I didn't mean paying twice. I meant asking when would people pay: only when finished and visibly ready or whether there would be some that would risk their money by preordering (and getting alpha/beta access). I'd rather move scout abilities to other classes but remove the class.
A realistic price range for an Indie-Empires at release is 15-25€ and you could charge up to 30€ for an "alpha access with goodies" version geared towards the hardcore fans of Source-Empires. Also, don't make the same mistake as the NS2-guys and use your own engine programmed from scratch. It is just an overwhelming task to make the full package consisting not only of the graphics, but also networking, voice chat, lag-compensation, controls, etc as a single programmer. There are many good free or semi-free options on the market.
It would be all circumstantial. I would need to know a lot more about who would be developing it and all that sort of jazz. If the alpha looked good and I would get the full game at the end of it I would spend $21-30. As a finished product, I wouldn't spend any more than that unless it looked really good. Empires has sort of worn off me but a remake with more consistent fun would definitely refresh things for me.
I think best model I have seen on these kind of projects: Start cheap and increase the price during development. 5$ for first alpha. 10$ for early beta. 15$ for multiplayer stable beta. 20$ for finished product. Ta-daa!
Assuming nothing goes wrong and you can scrap together a motivated dev team... 11-20$ in alpha, only because Empires is experimental enough to where it could easily fail if the dev team doesn't have the right vision.
This won't work. Minecraft pulled it off because their game was lightweight and mainstream. Empires is neither. It could be done. The graphics would have to be cartoony, because a small dev team can't run with CoD-sized teams on the technical end. You'd have to have achievements and other addictive stuff that could be sold in a freemium-esque market (experience? hats?). And then you'd just have to make the game easier to play. An in-game tutorial is an obvious requirement. Also, exploits would have to legitimized or removed. That includes beloved "strategies" that the current hardcore population enjoys. Empires wouldn't be a bad foundation for a freemium game, but I don't have a lot of faith in it surviving this brutal community. If a good freemium game was developed, the community would almost certainly boycott it. We love shoving mines in our barracks, k?
Whilst this thread is nothing to do with me, I just want to point out that MOOtant is talking about in theory. Krenzo did a similar thread long after he left. It's just for his personal interest. I think.
I would certainly by an Alpha stage game, but only if there was proof that the game was actually getting solid work put into it. While you, Mootant, and others involved in Empires and the attempts at spinoffs have certainly demonstrated that you are good modders who can do big and ambitious things, Empires itself hasn't seen any big changes in a long time. I'd love to see the gameplay concepts here fleshed out, but for that to even happen you would have to make a team of developers who will actually create the entire game. I know it's possible, but I'm paying anything out of my desire for a better Empires game. If whatever you make can't be sold on it's own merits, or the people involved can't prove that they will actually create a finished game, than the fact that it's an Empires game wouldn't ever convince me to buy it. I like Empires, but I don't blindly love it.
these kind of models end up in never ever releasing finals and devs losing interest overtime due to no new purchases (minecraft) on the OP depends on the engine and the scope, for my perfect dreams empires id pay easily 30€ for a beta
Probably a good idea honestly, it's just a faster version of the rifleman really. You could just give all the other classes a speed focussed set of skills and weapons.
But the freemium model can gain traction. In a community like this one, you might be able to do a hybrid system. Get the game playable and sell early access for $5-10. Once the store is ready, release the game for free and give the early adopters some of their investment back in store credit. But what do you sell in a freemium store for a wannabe competitive game? Hats. Seriously. Hats don't affect gameplay, so pubbers would have little objections. You could hire artists to make them and pay the artists a percentage of the hat's revenue.
$21-30 would be reasonable. I don't think I would buy this game if you made your own engine though without a great demo of actual gameplay footage showing that the engine works well. And on a live server, not a lan.
