There have got to be better avenues for conning someone out of $1-$3 than a year "promoting" sales of a niche iOS remake of a decades old C64 game with the upgrade promise. Conditions change. Devs should to do whatever they see as having the best match to their goals. Much rather pay for SoF2 and see the game supported happily than see them "honorable" and ditching support of the game almost immediately or forcing the majority of new content into IAP packages.
You know? I could see if Madgarden came on here and said - HEY Fargoal update will be released in 3 days - you have 3 days to get the original Fargoal at x price before the update at which time it will go up to x+y - get it before the price increase! ONLY THEN would I see someone getting an app in anticipation of an update. Otherwise, it is a crap shoot on the app store as we all know. You get what you get at the time you pay for it. I have said it before and will probably, undoubtably, have to say it again - unless there is a game ending crash, you buy a complete product. Any updates, changes, additions are a bonus. No one should buy an app in anticipation of anything. Madgarden is one of the few upfront, honest and revealing devs. He is a straight shooter and is saying it like it is, even if it is hard to hear sometimes. You would think he announced that Christmas is cancelled for the next 20 years instead of just saying - hey you will get a better game if you let me work on it. So what if it has been delayed? We will all be happier for it. If after all this time he decides it is in the best interest of himself, his family and his company to make this a separate app (because the depth and breadth of the game deserves it) so be it. Honestly? Him being so approachable is both his blessing and his curse (sorry Mrs M to be redundant). He gets to interact with all the fans of his games and gets to hear all the great positives. But on the other hand he gets to see all the whining, complaining, and entitlement. No other platform has that interaction. When Fallout Las Vegas was released with character's heads upside down do you think Bethesda or Obsidian interacted in such a personal manner? No, your complaint was put in queue. If people want to continue interaction with developers then it would be best to use developers support contact information for entitled, unreasonable objections. Don't stick it out here on a public forum because you know what? Developers of iOS will become like Bethesda and Obsidian and just hide behind a support email and not interact. And after reading some of the comments and time it has taken Madgarden to answer the naysayers why would they WANT to stick around? Thankfully it seems like the majority of people on this thread are mature and have a good attitude about it. They understand a quality product when they see it. They have a game to continue to play. They got what they paid for and surely got loads of hours of entertainment out of it.
" You would think he announced that Christmas is cancelled for the next 20 years instead of just saying - hey you will get a better game if you let me work on it." Naw, Madgarden didn't cancel Christmas. He just buried it on dungeon floor 758 and NONE of you will ever see it again, ho ho damn ho!
Baron, glad you like Saucey as well as Fargoal. I am hoping to do a special update for Fargoal iPhone after 2.0 hits, such as a retro C64 skin, which is really not a feasible addition to 2.0 due to the increased graphical complexity.
I've kept about 70 of about 100 apps since I started buying games for my iPhone, and the common theme is retro, I suppose - retro with a soul - meaning it's gotta be evident there's some sort of passion for the project, and not just some mega corporation crapping out another title. There are so many quick cash-ins on retro as an adjective these days, as gamers that grew up on the consoles of the late 70s through early 90s look back with nostalgia. Facebook was great early on. I discovered Minimae while hoping to find Dragon Warrior, (Minimae proved to be the superior game, so I was in luck) then friended/liked everything about Minimae on Facebook, and noticed Sword of Fargoal in the things they liked, and tried it, and loved it, then it all sort of spiraled out of control. Found my way here, and Fargoal is always an active discussion and noticed the guy that made Fargoal made a game called Saucelifter, so I got that too. Almost all my apps fall within 6 degrees of separation. I'm Matt Turpin on Facebook - intermittently active on your wall there as well.
I actually did buy it for the 2.0 upgrade Well, just to throw in my 2cents, I actually did buy Sword of Fargoal because of the (cancelled?) 2.0 update. I mean, I'm not going to go crying "dev stole muh' three bucks," but I had already bought the ipad version (Legends), and since I liked it, I checked out the forum and read about the intention to keep the ipad version 'classic', while updating the iphone version. Now it seems like the iphone version is just going to be redundant and useless for me. Of course, I'm just a player so I don't get a vote. I honestly don't understand the people in this forum whining about how slow updates arrive. I assume the developer is working as fast as they can, and if they're not--hell, that's their prerogative. It's not like we have some signed contract about when the update is supposed to hit. So I'd definitely love to see the iphone version of Fargoal not be a complete waste for me, assuming that option is still on the table. But if 2.0 doesn't come as a free update I'd understand that too. Great game overall!
Matt Turpin, ah yes of course I know you from the Facebook page. I know the Minimae team too, they're good guys. I meet up with Robin every year at the World of Commodore, heh. Bowgart, yes that was truly the original plan, but the trends in app sales these days are pretty much saying it will be a bust if we just make an update, especially after spending so much effort on it. Wish it was otherwise. Heck, I'd just make games for free if I didn't have to worry about the bills. Still, if all goes well we will make sure that your Fargoal 1.x purchase is worthwhile and unique. brerlappin, yes at this time the plan is to make Fargoal 2 a universal build.
thread alive Yes, just an update would be crap for a game like fargoal. I wish you would do the following, but wished tend to stay what they are: 1. Make Fargoal 2.0 a seperate app and charge 99 Cents so that it will land in the top ten and gets finally the buzz it always deserved as the best app in the game category of the app store. Don't worry about the income, most people who know this thread will buy your IAP-shelf vacuum-clean empty. 2. Make fargoal 2.0 for fargoal 1.7 (right?) an IAP for those who are ignorant. 3. Make Fargoal Legends for free without IAP-upgrade-option to keep fargoal also in the top ten of the free apps. easy plan to rule the worldwide mindset about whats the best game evaarrrr!!!
Some good ideas, plastic_student. #2 isn't really feasible without a big huge effort, though. With your plan, I think it would probably make more sense to set Fargoal (iPhone-only) as the free one, with Legends and 2.0 as the "premium" versions to which to upgrade. All in theory, of course.
Not content to show the users of TA that you're a cheap, whiny, douche who expects other people to pay for your entertainment you went and made it a review on iTunes so everyone else could too? Bravo, my good man, bravo.
Not that it matters, but my vote would be Fargoal 2.0 as a separate universal app. I'm all for IAP if it's cool stuff, but I hate having to buy it twice...
Yeah I want 2.0 to be universal. Still have to figure out how the IAP will work though, since it's a model more like Jetpack Joyride or Temple Run, using in-game coinage to unlock stuff. Syncing that coin-based info is more tricky than just simply having a specific IAP item purchased and synced.
Eh, not sure how many people take iTunes reviews to heart when they come from disgruntled whiny dissatisfied consumers unrealistically believing they have found a platform to yell from.
Not to mention, it's one bad review swimming in a sea of 5 stars. It really does make his true character shine, though, pretty comical.
I just noticed Mrs.Madgarden's sig. That's priceless. A man can change a great deal in a month it seems.
I just noticed that I hadn't posted a screenshot in a little while, so here you go: Hmm, I should make smaller screenshots.
Ain't she sweet, See her walkin' down the street. Now I ask you very confidentially Ain't she sweet? NO!!!!!!
