Friday Facts #293 - New remnants 2 & 1.0 Marketing plan

[ElCapitan1701]

I agree with the assessment that the market is nearly saturated with factorio. Steam release might get some new players and some of them even maybe of the shooter or mainstream genres but I am a little concerned the factorio team might get to be dissappointed (the first time?).

I read the recommendation of providing keys for educational institutions - I am a teacher in a school and the fact that my students have to buy the game for 30€ makes it impossible to use it in any way. So I would take those free keys for sure. Nevertheless, schools are provided with free keys from all sort of software and that wont trigger some (meaningfull) press. There would need to be some sort of competition, curriculum or something to make it an acceptable use of time in school.

I think too that you should concentrate on giving the current player base something to do. Those improvments, better graphics etc...are fine and shows your devotion to the game, but thats not for the "old" players.They already bought the game and are fine with it.

I also like your style in being honest and transparent. I can also concur with your definition of capitalism. So I think the talent and character of the factorio team is really wasted in developing factorio for ten more years. You invested alot of time, money, sweat and tears and made its way, it can walk now, and it wont turn into a monster, what ever comes. I suggest letting the game go, sell it (for big money) to an investor which makes content aka DLCs, console adaptation etc...for the fanbase. That will be best for the fanbase - and for you (I think).

I would love to see the factorio team take a fresh approach for some other game in the same genre. As a star trek fan I would wish it maybe something more ... bright

[Klonan]

I suggest letting the game go, sell it (for big money) to an investor which makes content aka DLCs, console adaptation etc...for the fanbase. That will be best for the fanbase - and for you (I think).

[AmatorPhasma]

I do not know why, but I feel a bit ill now

[Koub]

spoiler

I suggest letting the game go, sell it (for big money) to an investor which makes content aka DLCs, console adaptation etc...for the fanbase. That will be best for the fanbase - and for you (I think).

[o76923]

I heard about this game from CGP Grey on YouTube mentioning he was addicted to it and including some references to it in Easter Eggs in his videos. I'm sure he'd give a great endorsement if you sponsored one of his videos.

[gyorokpeter]

Not sure if it helps with the marketing in any way but here is how I first learned about the game:
https://index.hu/tech/godmode/2016/05/2 ... ly-access/

This is from a popular Hungarian news portal that happens to have game-related articles from time to time. The article is written in a way that follows my thought process and desire for automation. So by the end of the article I knew this is a game that I really have to try out. Then I downloaded the demo and that confirmed my expectations so I went and bought the game. At that point it still had the old tutorial (I think you didn't even start with a furnace or a pickaxe so you had to mine your first few items by hand) but it was still very effective in teaching me how the game works.

Wube's excellence at how to manage the development of the game never ceases to amaze me. Saying no to investors, exclusivity deals etc... these are the things (having to please investors rather than pursuing your own vision) that cripple many good games.

[RocketManChronicles]

As a long time backer of this game, and nearly 2500 hours in; I would not mind 'donating' a bit more money to the team. I feel that the $30 I paid over three years ago for 0.12 has come a long way, and the team deserves more. May I suggest a tiered donation setup for backers who wish to participate? Provide several options, $1, $2, $5, $10, etc. Maybe $30 is the max limit here and it is a one-time deal. Just an idea.

[Vinnie_NL]

...I also like your style in being honest and transparent. I can also concur with your definition of capitalism. So I think the talent and character of the factorio team is really wasted in developing factorio for ten more years. You invested alot of time, money, sweat and tears and made its way, it can walk now, and it wont turn into a monster, what ever comes. I suggest letting the game go, sell it (for big money) to an investor which makes content aka DLCs, console adaptation etc...for the fanbase. That will be best for the fanbase - and for you (I think).
...

@Wube: Please never do that. I'd rather have the game in the current state that a company like EA or MS thinking of ways to optimize their profits of the game (ironic considering the game is about optimisations) but they don't care about the customer, only about getting the maximum amount of money for the minimum amount of content.

[bobucles]

[memes][/memes]

Yes, and? It's like you HATE money! There absolutely is a market for the casual, incremental, financially illiterate great whale. But it's a rocky, soulless road that starts with biter beach episode DLC.

The REAL loot crates are blueprints tho.

[eradicator]

GameStar is (one of?) the biggest German print+online gaming magazines. They also in-frequenty do coverages (written and/or video) of gaming companies or background stories, though larger reports are often "paywalled" and only accessible to subscribers, so i'm not sure how useful that is, or who gets to decide if something is paywalled or not. They're generally favourible towards indie productions and Germany has historically been a market with an above average interest in building games (The Settlers, Anno Series). And they still do classic gaming tests too, so you could get both coverage+test. But ofc they target only the German market, so the effort would have only indirect benefits for your international marketing.

[DerGraue]

ORANGE GLOW INSERTER??? OMG WHERE CAN I BUY???!!!!

[Theikkru]

satire

Well played.

On that note, I agree that your existing userbase is worth tapping alongside any attempted market expansion, since that is precisely the (increasingly rare) luxury afforded developers who cultivate a loyal following; some quality physical merchandise could indeed be a reasonable approach:
biter/bot/tank USB dongles
previously mentioned bound literature
rocket silo, turret, assembler, or accumulator paperweight
"third hand tool" inserter
worm salt/pepper shaker or shampoo/lotion/ketchup/mustard squeeze bottle
turret perfume/spray bottle
roboport or logistics chest tissue box
small/medium/large power pole coat/hat tree

[madpav3l]

I would say though, that one good thing is to reach out to game review YouTube channels and offer them a key to review the game. There are so many large channels that could potentially provide massive coverage. One that comes to mind that I watch a lot is Worth A Buy. He does real honest reviews and if offered a key will definitely cover indie games. He did a review of Factorio previously actually, but that was a long time ago when his channel was much smaller and the game was far less developed.
So just finding channels like that I think could provide a lot of coverage.

I also second the ideas of Popular Mechanics and similar magazines like that.

I am pretty sure Mac (Worth A Buy) will review Factorio even without getting a key, he mentioned it before that he is looking forward to the full game.

[Rebmes]

I literally first heard about this game from a mention in Steam comments (i.e. word of mouth), awhile before Steam release.

Just make sure the big publications all have at least one recent Factorio article! Showing up on the front page of Steam might help too. Just let players SEE this game, be exposed to it, know it exists; that'd be a good start! And keep up the moral high ground <3

[Kinson25]

This might be a good place for a story on the game.
https://www.facebook.com/interestingengineering/

[MakeItGraphic]

As a long time backer of this game, and nearly 2500 hours in; I would not mind 'donating' a bit more money to the team. I feel that the $30 I paid over three years ago for 0.12 has come a long way, and the team deserves more. May I suggest a tiered donation setup for backers who wish to participate? Provide several options, $1, $2, $5, $10, etc. Maybe $30 is the max limit here and it is a one-time deal. Just an idea.

Just buy another key of their main site and give it away on discord or something.

[TheCornishman]

I don't know whether anyone else has mentioned this thing about the labels 'player' and 'character'. I was playing yesterday without Klonan's Construction Drones, broken by the change!, and having to build a lot. When I stand too close, the game says "Player is in the way".
1,$s/player/character/g

[ElCapitan1701]

I suggest letting the game go, sell it (for big money) to an investor which makes content aka DLCs, console adaptation etc...for the fanbase. That will be best for the fanbase - and for you (I think).

Yeah, well, I think I have to take back my statement about the monster thing...but...the mechanics you painted so well in your image are for free to play browsergames and not once-paid games. And finally its all about the contract - you can just give up the dirty work like console adaption and maintenance...keep the dlcs or whatever - if you like. I think most players will just take as much content they get - I think most players want to be maximum monetized.

Maybe my soul has already been corrupted by mainstream industry but I just can`t imagine that there is not a great desire in you to make something new after all those years. And imho you have earned that. You have cared for factorio a long time, and dont get me wrong, if you like you should do it forever, but I wont expect it from you. You have done your job.

So take the money, and then develop another game, no one has done.

[Klonan]

...but...the mechanics you painted so well in your image are for free to play browsergames and not once-paid games.

Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but a lot of modern $60 games come with these mechanics designed to 'drive recurring user engagement'.

[ignatio]

I heard about this game from CGP Grey on YouTube mentioning he was addicted to it and including some references to it in Easter Eggs in his videos. I'm sure he'd give a great endorsement if you sponsored one of his videos.

Like this one: https://youtu.be/AM1-ecnQsm4?t=98 Gold.

(He's only at 1500h though. I think it was about then I finally grew tired of the background music and turned it off.)