Concerned Ape (Stardew Valley): I swear on the honor of my family name, i will never charge money for a DLC or update for as long as I live. Screencap this and shame me if I ever violate this oath. : games

[-] lvxferre@mander.xyz 177 points 5 months ago

The sad part is that the idea behind DLCs (to develop further content for a game already released, in exchange for additional money) is reasonable. Or it would be, if shitty developers didn't abuse it to the point that it stopped being "downloadable content" to become "dumb and lazy cashgrab".

I also think that CA isn't just being benign with this statement, or his whole "let us not be arseholes" approach towards development. He's being smart; player trust might be hard to measure but it has direct impact on word-of-mouth advertisement and piracy, so it's basically the difference between "everybody knows it, plenty bought it" and "the few ones who know it pirated it".

[-] 50MYT@aussie.zone 53 points 5 months ago

Another excellent example of this working is Factorio.

The original game doesn't cost a fortune, it's made by a small extremely dedicated team. They polished it so hard the shine made everything else look like vanta black. Playing Factorio ruins other games because the depth and quality of everything else is so poor in comparison.

The game came out in like 2013 early access. Full release completed in 2020. A decade after initial launch, they are going to offer a DLC, that will cost money.

Absolutely happy to pay for a DLC for that perfection.

[-] at_an_angle@lemmy.one 20 points 5 months ago

I'm not happy to pay money for that DLC.

Are you kidding me? Already have 1400 hours in the game. And if this DLC is gonna double the base game, I'm screwed.

[-] Noodle07@lemmy.world 16 points 5 months ago

Yeah factorio doesn't cost money, it costs you years of your life

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[-] MintyAnt@lemmy.world 9 points 5 months ago

Soon...

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[-] kboy101222@sh.itjust.works 38 points 5 months ago

Agreed. If CA charged a few bucks for the 1.6 update, I'd have bought it without hesitation. Same with 1.5.

The best example right now is Factorio. There's a new expansion coming out in October. It isn't free, but it adds basically an entire new game on top of an already excellent and fully fleshed out game. I'm gonna buy it the day it goes on sale without question and without waiting for reviews.

Then there's crap like Starfield where they added 1 mission for $7.

Slay the Spire is current $8.50. Starbound is $4.50 (both are on sale rn for future readers) if you're looking for a space game.

[-] 50MYT@aussie.zone 17 points 5 months ago

Factorio DLC is going to break global productivity for a month when it's released in October.

[-] kboy101222@sh.itjust.works 10 points 5 months ago

Every single engineer and factorio fan I know have taken that day off. Nothing is getting engineered for like 4 days minimum

[-] 50MYT@aussie.zone 7 points 5 months ago

I've booked 3 days haha.

I've not touched factorio since Jan 2023. 5500 hours till then.

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[-] RebekahWSD@lemmy.world 8 points 5 months ago

1.5 update, with the entire island, I'd have bought in a heartbeat! It was insane seeing all the added stuff!

[-] Xenny@lemmy.world 7 points 5 months ago

I can't actually recommend Starbound. It's a game sure. And made by an indie team. But it's past is stained. The game is also hollow and devoid of true substance and this is clear after less than 5 hours of gameplay.

FTL is a much better space themed indie masterpiece.

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[-] ShadowCat@lemmy.world 146 points 5 months ago

Based.

Though I would 100% be fine with paying for Stardew DLC, the base game is worth so much more than its current price

[-] jqubed@lemmy.world 29 points 5 months ago

I have bought it twice, possibly on sale both times but still. I’d never heard of it, and I’d never played any style of game like that, but Nintendo advertised it to me when it launched on the Switch and I eventually bought it. Later my family started taking the Switch more and I eventually bought it again in Steam. No regrets! Happy to support good games from small developers that don’t break the bank!

[-] Oni_eyes@sh.itjust.works 7 points 5 months ago

Oh shit, didn't know it was on switch. Is there a digital only copy or do you need the game cart?

[-] NakariLexfortaine@lemm.ee 12 points 5 months ago

You can get it on the eShop. Stardew is on pretty much any device that can run it. With mod support, if at all possible.

It's kinda wild to see how many big PC mods have an Android version these days.

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[-] Album@lemmy.ca 73 points 5 months ago

30 million copies sold. even if he only made a dollar into his pocket for each sale....hes doing alright.

[-] ilinamorato@lemmy.world 131 points 5 months ago

But I have absolutely no problem with that whatsoever. Dude wrote a good, solid, complete game, sold it for a fair price, and made bank. That is the business model I want software to be sold under, and I'm thrilled to see it working for him.

[-] Album@lemmy.ca 37 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Right, not only do I not have a problem with this - but it SHOULD be rewarded.

Personally I beat the v1.1 version of the game back in Oct 2016 - but I purchased the game a second time on android because a) i wanted to support a cross platform port and b) the guy really deserves it.

I like it when I have the option to support a developer more, but it isn't expected or required.

[-] salmoura@lemmy.eco.br 6 points 5 months ago

I purchased the game a second time on android because a) i wanted to support a cross platform port and b) the guy really deserves it

I did the same. This game hits almost all the buttons for me.

Being an absolute Factorio addict, the only thing I miss is proper automation.

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[-] originalfrozenbanana@lemm.ee 63 points 5 months ago

The Ape family name is honorable

[-] ilinamorato@lemmy.world 18 points 5 months ago

The Apes always pay their debts.

[-] KomfortablesKissen@discuss.tchncs.de 6 points 5 months ago

What about the Bored Ape?

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[+] YourPrivatHater@ani.social 32 points 5 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

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[-] roguetrick@lemmy.world 17 points 5 months ago

Yeah but concerned ape added about half a game's content with that new island. Nobody would've blinked if they charged for it.

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[-] Molecular0079@lemmy.world 13 points 5 months ago

This. It all boils down to value for money. 5 dollars for a skin cosmetic is bullshit. 5 dollars or more for DLC with meaningful content is okay.

[-] CosmicTurtle0@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 5 months ago

If you're going to sell a DLC that is only a skin and people buy it, I don't have an issue. A skin adds nothing outside of "looks" and it's purely optional. If you the player want to pay for it, be my guest.

It's when games release a game that is unfinished, has bugs, and what should be a patch is sold as a DLC, I have problems with that.

Or when DLC adds a competitive advantage, that is just wrong. Like for $5 a month, you get extra "stability" in your scope, or the whole "pride and accomplishment" crates.

Those DLCs can go fuck themselves.

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[-] kibiz0r@midwest.social 30 points 5 months ago

That's fine for him, but let's not take this as a guideline for the entire industry.

There are plenty of talented, creative, and committed developers who are trying to turn their dream game into their life's work.

For most of them, the only way they can survive spending another 5 years working on the same title post-launch is by charging for the new stuff they make.

[-] Kiosade@lemmy.ca 11 points 5 months ago

Yeah easy for him to say, he’s a one-man operation, so he gets ALL the profit to himself. Probably millions of dollars at this point… he’s set for life. He doesn’t really need DLC money. But other devs probably do.

[-] hangonasecond@lemmy.world 8 points 5 months ago

Your point is basically the same but I believe he isn't technically a one man dev anymore. For a while, he has worked in a small team, with a few games released/in EA on Steam having been created by former SV devs on the same engine with ConcernedApe's permission.

I assume he also outsources the work of the console ports.

In any case, it doesn't take away from the point, and you could probably still classify him as a solo developer for the purpose of talking about his upcoming Willy Wonka simulator. It's much easier to pay 4-5 people from the proceeds of one of the best selling indie games of all time than it is to pay 40-50 people from the proceeds of a 10 year old game with free updates and expansions. No Man's Sky, for example, must have some really consistent sales figures for them to continue to be making money.

[-] JDPoZ@lemmy.world 29 points 5 months ago

Such an incredible game and a great humble developer. Honestly, there’s nothing I can think of to do to improve the game from a gameplay mechanics standpoint, but there are a few technical back-end things I do wish it had :

Cross-platform compatible cloud-based save support. I want to be able to play in my same game save regardless of what system I play on. I don’t even mind paying for the game multiple times, but I want to have a singular Stardew account that I can sync somehow between PlayStation, Steam Deck, iOS, etc.
Cross-platform multiplayer. If I want to play on my Steam Deck and hop into my spouse’s farm on the Switch or whatever… or have them be able to do so on mine.
Mixing local and online co-op. If my kid wants to play with my spouse split-screen and I want to play on my desktop, again - would love to just be able to do so more seamlessly.
Dedicated server support.

I know at this point doing those things would be very hard from a technical standpoint since they’d probably require a lot of deep work in a code base that was not built to do any multiplayer to begin with, but I still would love if they could somehow do so or fork the base game to allow it to be done by the community.

[-] woelkchen@lemmy.world 11 points 5 months ago

The cross-platform saves probably wouldn't be that hard from a technical perspective. The game is written using MonoGame and likely doesn't have that many changes to the core of the game for ports. From what I know about MonoGame (which is admittedly only a little, so I may be wrong!!) the engine abstracts pretty much everything.

I think the stumbling blocks are outside factors. Games often don't update on different platforms at the very same time because console vendors take longer to vet updates. A game save from an updated PC version synced to a console version without the update could break it. Also setting up and maintaining the server infrastructure for syncing is its own can of worms. Certainly doable but it would pretty much require him to outsource that and he may simply not want that.

[-] twinnie@feddit.uk 28 points 5 months ago

I don’t think charging for content is the problem, it’s just the way some companies do it.

[-] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 10 points 5 months ago

Exactly. A good content DLC should be similar to buying a new game, but cheaper for both the devs and players.

[-] cdipierr@lemmy.world 24 points 5 months ago

I mean this is great, props... But didn't he already make his nut with this game?? I mean I can play it on my fucking Tesla, I assume he got paid.

[-] PostiveNoise@kbin.melroy.org 53 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Sure. He made many millions of dollars within the first couple years of releasing it. That's why he can pretty much do whatever he wants, including continuing to work on the game without charging additional money for it. And of course, it keeps selling more copies, and will for many years to come, so he has tons of money continuing to flood in.

He certainly seems like a pretty grounded guy, and it's nice that he tries to be cool about stuff, including not gouging the player base for more money. Being an individual has huge advantages compared to being a corporation, in some ways. A corporation would pretty much be obligated to maximize profit. He can just be pleased that he brings joy to millions of players, and has already made a fortune.

[-] cdipierr@lemmy.world 25 points 5 months ago

Yeah - I don't want to be too dismissive. I've read interviews with him, and despite his success, he hasn't measurably changed his lifestyle or fallen into the traps a big influx of money can cause. It honestly reminds me of No Man's Sky (minus the redempetion arc) where enough money was made from the base product that it funds ongoing development for the forseeable future.

[-] wccrawford@lemmy.world 8 points 5 months ago

Yeah. He deserves his success, and I'm happy to hear he's doing good things for his customers... But this kind of reads like a slight on all the developers who release DLC for profit. The vast majority of companies don't succeed this well on any game.

So I'm glad he's said this, but I also don't think poorly of devs who release for-profit DLC, either.

[-] ech@lemm.ee 19 points 5 months ago

CA is too good for us.

[-] echodot@feddit.uk 13 points 5 months ago

I suppose that's nice. Although I do not see the problem with charging for updates, with multiplayer it's a problem because people might get pressured into buying something they might otherwise not get it because of friends, but with the single player game I can't see the issue. And why doesn't the dev deserve to be compensated?

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[-] samus12345@lemmy.world 11 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

If you violate the oath and make good paid DLC that's worth the price, I won't even be mad.

[-] PythagreousTitties@lemm.ee 9 points 5 months ago

I agree. Good expansions are usually worth the money.

[-] owenfromcanada@lemmy.world 9 points 5 months ago

Fucking legend

[-] Lizardking27@lemmy.world 8 points 5 months ago

Rimworld devs sweatin' rn.

[-] TexMexBazooka@lemm.ee 9 points 5 months ago

Meh. They charge for DLC, the DLC is optional and adds a lot of depth to the game, it’s a small studio…

I’ll take it

[-] Lizardking27@lemmy.world 9 points 5 months ago

My dude it's a $125 indie game. Devs think they're paradox or something.

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[-] fox2263@lemmy.world 8 points 5 months ago

I miss old school “Expansions” like brood war etc

[-] excral@feddit.org 8 points 5 months ago

The Factorio Devs made this Blogpost some time ago about how to go forward with development. It basically boiled down to developing a big (paid) expansion pack. I would be totally fine with Stardew Valley doing the same. However, going for free updates was discarded for Factorio because they have a "smaller but more dedicated audience [compared to Terraria and Minecraft]". I don't think that applies to Stardew Valley so free updates might be the way to go.

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