Hi all! It’s my first post here so please excuse any errors. I’m so excited to see ACEO become a successful game!
I’d be interested to know if the developers have considered a system of adding names to the game in a similar way to those in Prison Architect. I think it would be a nice little addition to the game and could possibly be used to help during the funding campaign.
To sum it up, people who purchase the game during development could pay a little extra to create (make up a name and some fictional details for) a character who would appear (at random) in the game. There could be different levels such as $5 extra to create a passenger (whose details could show up in the form of a passport when you click on them) or $10 extra to name an employee (whose details could appear in the same way but as a CV - allowing for added information such as a custom bio, hobbies, etc.).
You do realize this means a big burden on the developers right? They will have to check each and every submitted name for profanity and such…And if the name is not approved, to refund the money. This is a big hassle at this stage.
@anshu1605 The aim of any crowdfunding campaign would not be just to get your name in the game. It is a way of recognising the contribution that the donor has made to the game. The devs (if they want to go down this path) would try to raise money via crowdfunding (through something like Kickstarter), and there are various rewards for donating at certain levels. Contributing a name would be one such reward. Other crowdfunding campaigns do similar things. The reward is often worth less than the donation, as the aim is for the fundraisers to generate income.
@pderuiter - the burden could be lessened somewhat by limiting the number available to the first so many donors? A list of names isn’t too bad to fact check - something like a biography would be tedious, granted.
The Game at first will get only a dozen donations daily… small or big.
So two people can manage.
When the game grows bigger… 50-100 donations??
I guess it will take 5-15 min for two people to check names.
And if the game becomes massively hit… Then obviously the Devs will hire employees for further help in development and bug fixing, etc. ( Remember they operate under Apiopsis Studio?? It’s a game studio which will definitely have more than 2 employees.) So they’ll have support staff etc. It’ll still be easy for them.
And they don’t have to check each one individually even if they don’t hire anyone. Some swear filters, spell and grammar check softwares will also work.
And @me123 I now get what you meant… I thought it was all about renaming. Yes this method can be adopted by Devs. A way of appreciation. I deleting my above post.
Can’t say that we haven’t thought of this! Currently we have a system that, as mentioned in some devlog, already takes in a bunch of different (international) names from a database so that we’ll be able to map passenger names against their nationality. We also have some special names which we can add, like “Margaret Thatcher” or “Beyoncé” so this would indeed be possible as the framework already exist. However, as pderuiter mentioned, there is of course more work associated with this but if it would be limited to a few hundred persons we could indeed check all the names. However, not sure how much we as developers would feel comfortable charing for this… 10$ is too much at least. But an interesting idea non the less!
Thank you for being cost practical on things. While developing any software is difficult work, I feel a lot of indie developers overcharge on alpha early access as well as DLC. Most crowd funding items for games leave me thinking ‘I’m not paying that much for that’. Bravo so far to the devs. I have a good feeling that you will be true to your word about the cost of the game and DLCs being reasonably priced.
Are you saying that 10$ for full game access + your own name in the game is too much? Or do you mean $10 extra to the base price of the game? If the first case is true, whoah, from what I see, this game is worth more than that?!
Thanks everyone for the input and @Olof it’s great to see that you’re planning for reasonable pricing.
In regards to the additional workload, I definitely agree that it could turn out to be a big burden.
The following information is based off my memory so parts (or all) of it could be false:
I recall during the development for Prison Architect the developers were facing a similar issue. If you play the game you might have noticed that there is a way to search for names within the game and report them if they’re inappropriate. This report button (as I recall) was introduced in order to allow people to add characters automatically without every single one of them being reviewed first. The names that were reported would then be sent to a database for a staff-member to check. Perhaps something like this could be implemented, given that it would be small-scale to begin with. I do understand though that developers placing something that important in the hands of players can be risky.
$10 for game and the name in the game I would do, but definitely not $10 for just name in the game. I agree that from what it looks like so far this game will be worth more than $10.
Sorry Olof, but if Beyoncé thinks she’s getting through my airport without some extra security screening, she’s sadly mistaken. In the name of safety, of course.
Dude… Game is worth more that $10 nearly $25-$30 (minimum) as of now… Cause we don’t have to forget that this game going to get big in future.
And also take into consideration that devs will provide free DLCs… (They said it before). I’ll pay up to $50 for this game. ( But I’ll need assurance that the devs will keep developing it).
But yeah reasonable pricing will help the sale. (And my annual game budget too )
And as for the name idea… $1-$3 would be much better. (Actually even less)
And I’ll definitely want trump in the game. I’ll purposely loosen up the security for him and help terrorist to get on his plane.
And also Prison Architect has a txt file that contains all namea. (First name list and Last name list). We can simply add our name into the list…I guess… Anyone??
Like Olof said we have not really discussed this but, I am open to have that as an option. I don’t see the problem of charging 10 $ for a limited perk like that. It can be seen as a donation where we put the name in the game as a thank you. This can also be stretch to things like naming and designing airlines. Of course we can supply the raw text file so that anyone can add names to their local copy and the same can probably be added for airlines.
To fit with other titles of this calibre I would expect it to retail at around £15-20GBP ($19-25USD). Titles such as Rimworld, Prison Architect and Factorio sell for £23GBP ($29USD), £20GBP ($25USD) and £15GBP ($19USD) respectively which I think are good base prices for this game as they are similar in development style and gameplay mechanics.
I definitely cannot afford to put down £40GBP ($50USD) on a game of this genre and style
Ikr… $50 is too much for this genre. But still my annual budget is approx $150 for games. And I have already spent around $70 on Call of Duty series (PS3). So approx 80 left. 30 for other games. And I still have 50. So I CAN spend $50 on this game. But NOT willing too…As said above.
) So they’ll have support staff etc. It’ll still be easy for them.
