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So how well did Dust: An Elysian Tail do saleswise?

bryehn

Member
Game was really good for the most part, but kind of turned into a slog going for 100+ %. You become way overpowered a bit early.
 

OnPoint

Member
Game was really good for the most part, but kind of turned into a slog going for 100+ %. You become way overpowered a bit early.

I didn't 100% it until after I beat it and it wasn't too much of a chore, but I can see how it would have been if you were doing that while playing the main game.

However, I also didn't forge one item until I beat it either, which made my playthrough more challenging than it may have been those who did. I didn't do it on purpose, I just never did the area with the blacksmith until I saw the ending for some reason. Additionally, my level was pretty low going through toward the final boss (at least when compared to a friend's), which gave me a greater challenge. I feel bad for those who overleveled, unintentionally or not -- it was a satisfying boss battle for me.
 

chiablo

Member
Hopefully they are looking into porting it elsewhere to get some more sales, cause yikes.

Microsoft published, so expect it to hit Steam in about a year assuming Microsoft doesn't own the IP. I hope that both Dust and Fez prove to indie developers that signing a console exclusive deal is a bad decision.

He mentioned that he cut a huge chunk from the story in order to make his deadline. I would hope that he would spend the time finishing it up, then releasing it on Steam as a "Director's Cut" or some such.
 

Mesoian

Member
the furry vibe was just a bit too much for me in this one.

But that's a silly attitude to take towards this game.

As said on the bombcast, it's a real shame that people are going to pass over this game because they're getting caught up on the implications of an artstyle, not even the arstyle itself.

Play the game, it's one of the best of the year.
 

Dabanton

Member
But that's a silly attitude to take towards this game.

As said on the bombcast, it's a real shame that people are going to pass over this game because they're getting caught up on the implications of an artstyle, not even the arstyle itself.

Play the game, it's one of the best of the year.

Seriously, it was happening a lot in the main thread as well. Are some gamers that close minded?
 

Mesoian

Member
Some people's enjoyment of a game can be heavily affected by art choices.

Which would be fine if people were actually judging the artstyle. Almost every "argument" I've seen against the game's artstyle has been, "Oh, it's furry. You know what those people are like, I don't wanna be associated with that," which is so stupid.

It's the same as not reading a wonderful book because you don't like the cover art.
 

Tadale

Member
I hope that the game can find some new life somewhere else. It's really one of the better games released this year, downloadable or not.
 
But that's a silly attitude to take towards this game.

As said on the bombcast, it's a real shame that people are going to pass over this game because they're getting caught up on the implications of an artstyle, not even the arstyle itself.

Play the game, it's one of the best of the year.

That's the thing though, it wasn't just the art style. The furry sensibility permeated itself into every aspect of the game right down to the dialogue. In the end it was just to heavy handed of a delivery.
 

jooey

The Motorcycle That Wouldn't Slow Down
Which would be fine if people were actually judging the artstyle. Almost every "argument" I've seen against the game's artstyle has been, "Oh, it's furry. You know what those people are like, I don't wanna be associated with that," which is so stupid.

It's the same as not reading a wonderful book because you don't like the cover art.

Well then let me just say the story and dialogue are also tremendously off-putting.
 

Mesoian

Member
That's the thing though, it wasn't just the art style. The furry sensibility permeated itself into every aspect of the game right down to the dialogue. In the end it was just to heavy handed of a delivery.

How do you figure? Sure it has a very anime-esque style of voice acting and breaks the fourth wall a few too many times, but the game had some of the best voice work out of any game indie or otherwise this year, which is incredibly impressive considering it was an ameture voice cast.

I'm actually curious to know what you mean when you say that the style permeates into every aspect of the game. If you changed the characters to regular people instead of anthropomorphic characters, the story would have worked exactly the same.

The only issue I had with the artstyle were the hand drawn cut scenes, because man, some of that stuff was straight out of Deviantart. But everything else was really well done.

Well then let me just say the story and dialogue are also tremendously off-putting.

But that doesn't have anything to do with how the characters look does it? The story does start out in a rather cliched manner (LOLZ AMNESIA!!!!) but it pulls the nose up, even when you can see where it's headed.

700 * .55 = 385 / 4 = 96.25

Assuming taxes, etc, it's not that impressive when you consider all those factors.

Eh, assuming that after taxes it's 80k a year, that's still more than I'm making.
 

Kodiak

Not an asshole.
But that's a silly attitude to take towards this game.

As said on the bombcast, it's a real shame that people are going to pass over this game because they're getting caught up on the implications of an artstyle, not even the arstyle itself.

Play the game, it's one of the best of the year.

This is absolutely not a silly attitude to have towards the game. I watched a Let's Play of the first 20 minutes of the game and I felt that the art and music was incredibly tacky with or without the furries. On top of that, there was tons of dialog that was intrusive and poorly written. Everything about the game seemed tasteless and was a huge turn off, to the point that I wasn't interested in learning about the deeper mechanics it had to offer.
 

Durante

Member
I'll freely admit that I didn't even really consider the game because of the art style. There are more games out there with art and gameplay I enjoy than I have time to play, so I feel like I can make a "shallow" choice like that.
 

Mesoian

Member
This is absolutely not a silly attitude to have towards the game. I watched a Let's Play of the first 20 minutes of the game and I felt that the art and music was incredibly tacky with or without the furries. On top of that, there was tons of dialog that was intrusive and poorly written. Everything about the game seemed tasteless and was a huge turn off, to the point that I wasn't interested in learning about the deeper mechanics it had to offer.

See that's not what I'm saying though. You gave the game a chance in one way or another, and found it just wasn't your deal. That's fine, the issue comes when people refuse to even try the demo because the main character is an anthropomorphic fox (cat? I don't think they ever really say).
 
I'll freely admit that I didn't even really consider the game because of the art style. There are more games out there with art and gameplay I enjoy than I have time to play, so I feel like I can make a "shallow" choice like that.

Bingo.

That said, this is not why I am not playing this game, as I think it looks pretty cool.
 

Dali

Member
But that's a silly attitude to take towards this game.

As said on the bombcast, it's a real shame that people are going to pass over this game because they're getting caught up on the implications of an artstyle, not even the arstyle itself.

Play the game, it's one of the best of the year.

I've been behind this game since before gaf as a whole knew about it bu even in the early days my thoughts echoed those. Not specifically "too furry" but not a fan of the art style. Complaints about art direction are just as valid as any other. It detracts from your enjoyment of a game. A lot of people don't like godhand. I felt like a fist of the northsatr badass while playing it. I don't think id have enjoyed it nearly as much if I was a anthro cat in fairy land.
 

Roubjon

Member
Which would be fine if people were actually judging the artstyle. Almost every "argument" I've seen against the game's artstyle has been, "Oh, it's furry. You know what those people are like, I don't wanna be associated with that," which is so stupid.

It's the same as not reading a wonderful book because you don't like the cover art.

I've got to disagree with this analogy. You look at the cover once when you read a book and the rest is drawn up in your head. When you are playing a game you are constantly looking at an already existing world. The graphics of a game are a huge part of it because it establishes the visual setting of the game. If you don't like what's laid out in front of you, it's hard to ignore it for the other more promising parts of the experience.
 

Caspel

Business & Marketing Manager @ GungHo
Once I clear out my backlog for games to complete, I'll be buying Dust with or without a sale.
 

DaBuddaDa

Member
One guy spent 5 years making this game, gets a return of something around 5-600k, that's over 100k/year profit. I wish my salary was that high.
 

Scrabble

Member
Games like this and downloadable titles need to be cheaper for me to purchase them. Pretty much every $60 retail title hits $20-$30 within a few months so I simply cant justify spending $15 on a game like this. I mean I bought Gears of War 3 for $15 at best buy less than a year after it came out. Why can't downloadable games ever drop in price?
 
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Deleted member 17706

Unconfirmed Member
That didn't take long.

That's probably because his opinion is shared by tons of people.

I haven't turned on my 360 in about a year. I don't want to buy any content on it.
 
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bu even in the early days my thoughts echoed those. Not specifically "too furry" but not a fan of the art style. Complaints about art direction are just as valid as any other. It detracts from your enjoyment of a game. A lot of people don't like godhand. I felt like a fist of the northsatr badass while playing it. I don't think id have enjoyed it nearly as much if I was a anthro cat in fairy land.

I was looking forward to it, but after playing the demo I found it wasn't for me. :/
 

Noogy

Member
I'm actually curious to know what you mean when you say that the style permeates into every aspect of the game. If you changed the characters to regular people instead of anthropomorphic characters, the story would have worked exactly the same.

Yeah, I found his comment odd too. One of the reasons I didn't choose humans was that this is the story of a race war. I didn't want to do aliens, and I didn't want to represent real races to avoid controversy. But maybe that's what people want, controversy. Oh well, haters gonna hate, though the constant complaint of anthro art never pops up in established franchises, so there's that double standard.

While completely avoiding a game due to its art is a bit shallow, I can understand it detracting from the experience. For example, I shudder whenever licensed music pops up in a game, and am pretty fed up with everything looking like an Activision clone (WoW or CoD). Can't please everyone, so as a developer why not please yourself for once?

Will I make another original IP with animals? No. I have to take into account what the current generation of gamers grew up with.

Regarding sales, I'm not allowed to say, but yeah, the Leaderboards probably give a good indication.

I hope that both Dust and Fez prove to indie developers that signing a console exclusive deal is a bad decision.

I would say these days that is probably true. You have to remember that Polytron and myself made these deals 3+ years ago. A lot happens in 3 years.

I was looking forward to it, but after playing the demo I found it wasn't for me. :/

I will admit, I am not entirely happy with my demo (something I wanted to address in the Postmortem but it ran long). One of those 'I should have stuck with my gut' things. It was hard to show off such a mixed-genre 2D game.
 
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Deleted member 17706

Unconfirmed Member
Noogy, are you able to comment on the possibility of a future PC release?
 

charsace

Member
Games like this and downloadable titles need to be cheaper for me to purchase them. Pretty much every $60 retail title hits $20-$30 within a few months so I simply cant justify spending $15 on a game like this. I mean I bought Gears of War 3 for $15 at best buy less than a year after it came out. Why can't downloadable games ever drop in price?

So because you wait for a sale this game should be cheaper? Stupid ass logic you got there.
 
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