i3allistic
Member
Phantasy Star were dope ....i also love Secret of Mana
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Zeboyd Games announces Cosmic Star Heroine (Suikoden/PhantasyStar-inspired Unity RPG)
- Thread starter cj_iwakura
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Robert at Zeboyd Games
Banned
I've been looking for those. That Eternal Blue ad sold me on a Genesis + Sega CD (followed by a bunch of Working Designs game purchases).
Cornbread78
Member
right side image
Morrigan Stark
Arrogant Smirk
Robert at Zeboyd Games
Banned
December's just a bad time to release any game unless you're a AAA game with a massive marketing budget (and even those rarely release past the first week of December).
OniBarubary
Banned
Yeah, December is a death month. I'm okay.
Lotsa time to add a spider party member while we're waiting.
Lotsa time to add a spider party member while we're waiting.
Laevateinn
Member
I'd be down for a manga or anime that looked like the ingame portraits but then that's actually pretty typical 80s anime (see: Dirty Pair.)
StereoVsn
Member
Q1 2017 is very unusual at least on console. There are so many Japanese games coming out in the first couple of months that pretty much anything non major will be lost there.
It's an unfortunate situation all around to be sure. Also, at least on Steam, releasing immediately post Fall sale (if doable) would allow say 10-20% sale come Christmas sale on steam.
Console I am not sure about but again, just look at that release list for Q1.
Robert at Zeboyd Games
Banned
I guess I don't see Q1 as being that bad. Persona 5 got delayed. There are some AAA games like Horizon & RE7, but I don't think there's much overlap between those and our game. DQ8 is an enhanced port on a system that we're not targeting. Stuff like Tales & Kingdom Hearts are $50-$60 Action/RPGs and have pretty insular fanbases at this point (is anyone planning on getting KH 2.8 who isn't already a diehard KH fan?). Even if someone who is interested in CSH wants to get some of the other games, as a $15 download title, our game doesn't exactly break the bank and would make a fine impulse purchase. And we have an advantage in that we're going to be on both consoles & PC at the same time which few games (and especially few JRPGs) do.
The fact of the matter is that there are so many games coming out and release dates change so frequently that trying to find the perfect week is a fool's errand. Pretty much all you can do is avoid the giants in your genre (which in our case would be FFXV, Persona 5, and Pokemon) and leave it at that.
And honestly, we don't need to sell a ton of copies to be successful - if we sold 50k-100k copies in the first month, I'd be very pleased and that doesn't seem impossible given that the game will be on both PSN & PC and has a low price.
I've been looking for those. That Eternal Blue ad sold me on a Genesis + Sega CD (followed by a bunch of Working Designs game purchases).
I liked the "hidden" messages in the fine print at the bottom of the page some of the ads had. To this day I still wonder what they meant by 3B.
DeputyVanHalen
Neo Member
Whenever you feel like releasing it is fine. I can wait. I'm a fan of your other games, so I'll buy right away whenever that is.
family_guy
Member
Well if your game is at PSX then you could have leveraged that by starting with an awesome trailer, and then saying, "It's on PSN right now!" I think the people that care about this type of game are going to buy it when it's available if the price is right, even if that means they don't play it right away. A $15-20 game is impulse buy territory. The reason $60 games dont sell that well in December is because that's asking for much more of an investment from the customer after after a big holiday sales rush. $15 is no big deal. I'm not sure what Q1 is going to buy you in terms of exposure because there will be no more big events after PSX for a long time and people will be talking about the AAA games then. In any case I'm still looking forward to playing it and hope you find success with this game.
StereoVsn
Member
Yeah I agree. Plus Q1 has the issue of time impacting potential buyers as their time will be taken up with anything from new Miku to Gravity Rush 2 to Yakuza 0 to KH to Tales of and so on. It's not that the game is just competing for wallets (as mentioned $15 is impulse buy) but rather anyone interested in JRPGs will most likely be playing several games during Q1 as it is.
December has nothing on the other hand plus visibility during PSX and possible promotion during Steam Christmas sale. Well I guess FF XV is right at the tale end of Nov.
Edit: For the sale price, IMO $20 initial price with 20-25% initial sale could bring great visibility vs just straight $15. Then again there was Undertale and Stardew Valley which just didn't care about stuff like that.
What are your favorite RPG magazine ads & box arts? Looking for ideas for some Cosmic Star Heroine marketing stuff.
Also, favorite 16-bit era RPG instruction books would be helpful since we want to make the Cosmic Star Heroine instruction book awesome (will be available for free digitally & a physical copy should come with the Limited Run Games release).
There can be only one:
Wait, this will only be $15? I was going to buy it anyway but now I really don't have any excuse. Q1 Japanese gaming heaven for me.
Laevateinn
Member
There can be only one:
Phalanx X68000 has a cool cover that could kind of work for CSH.
Robert at Zeboyd Games
Banned
I haven't tested on PS4P, but I'm guessing all it'll do is drop our already fast load times to basically nothing.
Admittedly, I'm behind on games since I haven't been buying new stuff, but I'm not really excited about any of those games. DQ8 is one of my all-time favorite games so I'll get it eventually, but I don't need to replay it anytime soon (and I'm more in the mood right now to replay the older games). Tales has always been a "Play when you're bored" sort of series for me & the other games are complete passes from me. But yeah, I don't really view any of these as direct competition - different prices, different platforms, different age ratings, and/or different subgenres.
The idea of doing a "Surprise! It's out!" release at PSX is nice and dramatic, but surprise launches have a tendency to go badly and that's even assuming that Sony, great as they've been, would give a small developer like us the proper promotion to make a surprise launch worthwhile. But really, the most important thing is that we gotta finish the game and make sure it's nice and bug-free. Once that's done, we're unlikely to wait very long before we release.
Just because you wouldn't buy them doesn't mean that other people interested in your game won't. Late January is loaded for me and it is for a lot of other people. I want CSH to succeed as it looks fucking awesome, but I'm worried about the possible timeframe for release as I'm worried it'll get overshadowed. Looks like I'm not the only one with this concern either.
Robert at Zeboyd Games
Banned
Sure, but these days there's always heavy competition no matter when you release. February has Nioh, Berserk, Horizon: Zero Dawn, For Honour, and other games. March has the Nintendo Switch launch. April has Persona 5.
cj_iwakura
Member
Guess you better just release it today!
But yes, do Working Designs ads.
Or one with the MC playing a banjo.
family_guy
Member
May I say thank you for releasing the game with such a nice pricepoint?
Personally I've waited ages for TiTS2, Xanadu and TLG, so I'm pretty Zen on the releasedate (as long as it's coming
), so just release when you feel confident in your game. =) (Oh wait, I know too many perfectionistic people: It'll never be perfect, but strive for a reachable optimum?)Boxarts: +1 japanese Phantasy Star Style (and +1 for an english Phantasy Star/Shining Force style Variant Boxart *_* <3) since it's pretty and recognizable. =)What are your favorite RPG magazine ads & box arts? Looking for ideas for some Cosmic Star Heroine marketing stuff.
Also, favorite 16-bit era RPG instruction books would be helpful since we want to make the Cosmic Star Heroine instruction book awesome (will be available for free digitally & a physical copy should come with the Limited Run Games release).
Romancing Saga had nice artsy boxart too (actually most jp SNES RPgs did). Hm, GDLeen-like for an obscure also-Phantasystar-like gamereference? =D
No fav ads since Europe (= import-(p)reviews = only local games ads (and those ads were too often... bikiniarmourstyle "it's for guys").
WD style book would be really cool, or like SNES game manuals in general, way too many xRPGs manuals nowadays are devoid of artworks&colour (well, I stopped looking at some point, maybe it got better). I always lovedto look at the characterart and (silly) illustrations. You ARE going to have silly chibis, right? *puppyeyes*
Rad Shadow
Banned
Really hoping I can snag a box for this when it comes out.
Man-is-Obsolete
Member
They must have a pretty empty mental list.
LurkerPrime
Member
I have just moved Cosmic Star Heroine up my mental list to compensate.
No thanks are necessary for this noble sacrifice.
No thanks are necessary for this noble sacrifice.
robotzombie
Member
Its pretty much been number 1 in my brain since it was announced
First of all, who?
Second of all, I get it, I mean it's been 3 years since the Kickstarter. But I certainly hope the game will be worth the wait.
N° 2048
Member
Greg Miller and Colin Moriarty, former IGN. They started a company called KindaFunnyGames.
These guys pull 2,500 viewsers everyday on their daily live stream.
They are VERY well known in the gaming industry.
Spiral Insanity
Banned
Why would you write off a game for taking years to release? Especially indie games with small teams.
Look at FFXV and its' positive reception, after an impossibly long time since announcement. Did the Kinda Funny team write that off as well?
There's plenty to play/catch up to until this releases.
Look at FFXV and its' positive reception, after an impossibly long time since announcement. Did the Kinda Funny team write that off as well?
There's plenty to play/catch up to until this releases.
More like look at Owlboy. That shit took forever.
Robert at Zeboyd Games
Banned
I get losing hype over time. Still, we're basically trying to make a new Chrono Trigger (while targeting multiple platforms, no less!) with a team of 2 full-time staff (me & Bill) and 2 part-timers (Chris & Dan at HyperDuck). One, we were completely insane to take on the task in the first place and 2) being almost done after only 3 years is impressive.
Anyway, I'm not worried. Lots of jokes about Owlboy over the years but as soon as the game came out, people stopped complaining & showered it with in praise. And we're nowhere near the 9 years or so that game took.
Anyway, I'm not worried. Lots of jokes about Owlboy over the years but as soon as the game came out, people stopped complaining & showered it with in praise. And we're nowhere near the 9 years or so that game took.
OniBarubary
Banned
Considering my distinct hatred for hype anyways I have no sympathy or patience for people who get excited about something and then shit on it when it gets caught in the mechanisms of reality in this industry.
If a game looked good to you and it took longer than you thought to come out or was delayed and you now think it's not worth it I think you need some real perspective in your life.
If a game looked good to you and it took longer than you thought to come out or was delayed and you now think it's not worth it I think you need some real perspective in your life.
I can understand fans of this game being annoyed at Kinda Funny, but they do tend to give a good spotlight to indie games they like, and as huge vita fans they are sure to direct people to this game when it comes out. This game is especially right up Colin's alley, so I'm sure their snarky comments came at least partially out of a place of love/impatience. Be annoyed with them if you want (they're certainly not perfect) but just wanted to present another side of the comments.
Morrigan Stark
Arrogant Smirk
This
It's not like Zeboyd disappeared for years and barely communicated either. They give regular updates on progress and are honest about everything they do. People need to stop being such damn babies.
I'd imagine most backers and other interested parties are satisfied with the level of interaction, but you obviously can't please everyone. It's clear the final quality of the game will speak for itself. If some people would prefer to forget about it until release or whatever, that's their own decision.
Captainbojanglesiii
Banned
I think it's more of a "I've forgotten about this game because it's fallen out of public eye. I'm sure Colin will still end up playing it.
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