As though fixed to some hissing mechanism, I receive a reliable drip of corporate PR every few seconds throughout the day. It's rare that I find this "content" worthy of you, and so I rarely present you with it. When Gabriel returned, knowing his abiding love for beautiful ponies and husbandry, I presented him with Ponystars - one of the bizarre gems I had sifted out of this endless accumulating ASCII. A product of the reconstituted Acclaim, I was confident the product would ensnare him, because in Ponystars one can:
1. Help Wild Ponystars In Need
2. Collect Lost Fairy Treasures, and
3. Search For The Lost Aurora Ponystars.
Those sound exactly like the kinds of things I would write if I were trying to make up three features, but those items are drawn directly from the game's website. Indeed, the game is a website. I assume this is the version for boys.
I wanted to make sure he was familiar with Bella Sara as well, because it would be a way for him to combine his love for collectible cards with his deep affection for noble pegasi. You should check out the "Getting Started" videos, not only because they are hilarious, but to feel the game's marketing message wash completely over you without effect. Each collectible card has a code on it, this code represents the genetic material of each horse, and it must be entered precisely as it is seen on the card.
I've purchased Age of Conan, installed it, and played it to level five twice now and then pulled myself away. I think that before I really begin something like this, I need to make sure that people know where I'm going, and how long I plan to be there, as though I were planning to conquer some desert summit.
Have you noticed that many sites have been reticent about delivering full-scale reviews? I think its probably for the best - historically, the review would have been based on the beta client, which in this particular case wasn't as robust as the release. These games are constantly in flux. Even WoW, which millions of people the world over consider the finest expression of the form, is a radically different game than the one they launched.
What's more, in a mutliplayer context - where the game is what's taking place between remotely controlled entities - most of the things I remember about massive games are interpersonal. I remember bringing someone who had gotten lost in the Burning Steppes back to the flight point more than I remember most raid content. I imagine the foes of Arcadia found our druidic assault quite memorable. They still wake in the night, I am certain of it, the memory still burning in their breast.
The melee combat system in Conan I find essentially delightful, striking around enemy defenses and kicking off combos, but I know I've hardly seen any of it. I've seen enough, though, to know that the game (with its rich single player introduction and its fast-paced, input-focused striking) has a very natural home on the console.
(CW)TB out.
I'm going to talk about the game again. If you're tired of hearing about it you can watch this video of me drawing today's comic:
So the game has been out for a few days now and I can share a couple numbers with you. It turns out that we had the third best launch ever as far as units sold in the 3 day launch window. The actual list looks like this. Keep in mind that this is just for the 360.
#1 RezHD, 25k units
#2 Ikaruga, 22.5k units
#3 PAA Episode 1, 16.5k units
#4 N+, 13k units
Given that our price point was double the other games on that list I'm pretty fucking happy. We fully expected some people to complain about the $20 price tag but we honestly felt like our game was worth it. Pricing something like this is tricky. Obviously you have to look at the length of time it will take someone to complete the game but you also need to factor in the quality of the experience. I know I personally would have paid $60 for Portal and that game was only a few hours. On the other hand I paid $60 for Heavenly Sword which was about five hours and I felt ripped off. Our game takes the average person between 6 and 8 hours to play through and some people have mailed me to say it took them nearly twice that. In the end we felt like we had made an experience that was worth twenty bucks. We put the demo out there so that people can at least try it and decide for themselves if they agree with us or not. I know there's been a lot of discussion about the price, I hope this answers some of those questions.
A couple more reviews came out for the game and they just seem to be getting better and better. We got an 8.5 out of 10 and an editor's choice award from TeamXbox. Towards the end of the review they say:
"A solid story, side-splitting humor, and quality game play all add up to create an experience that's one of the best titles to date on XBLA."
We also got a 4.5 out of 5 from GamePro. It's really awesome to see the high scores coming out. Even cooler than the reviews though has been all the great mail I've been getting. I really appreciate you all taking the time to mail me with your thoughts both good and bad. The great thing about the episodic nature of the game is that we can take a lot of the feedback we're getting and incorporate it into future episodes. I've also been getting a lot of questions about the making of the game. I was trying to think of a good way to answer as many of the questions as I could and I figured PATV might be a good way to do it.
So today at 1pm pacific I'll start a live stream. I'll go through some of the concept art I did for the game and show the story boards for the cut scenes. Obviously there will be a lot of spoilers so consider yourselves warned. I'll be talking about the process and answering questions from the chat room as best I can. Tycho will also be here in the room so I'll pass along any questions you have for him as well. Tycho has actually been working on a bunch of cool back story stuff. He'll be posting some info about things like the old academy and the Brahe family soon. If you'd like to participate you'll need to register over on the Ustream site. Then hit the PATV site at 1PM this afternoon. If that is not working for you try the Ustream site for the show. Don't forget that's pacific time. Hope to see you there.
-Gabe out
So the chat about the game went really well. Thanks to everyone that showed up and participated. Tycho and I each took turns at the mic fielding questions about the game and PA. Here's the recording in case you could not make it to the live show.
Just to warn you, it contains plenty of spoilers for the first episode of the game. Also it ends sort of abruptly. The lag got so bad that it just sort of died on us. It's got a lot of concept art from the game though as well as some insights in to future episodes.
-Gabe out
(CW)TB
