Posted August 05, 2017
I think it is kind of bad news for Barony fans on GOG, thought still worth sharing, if you are still considering buying this game on GOG (which I, myself, did):
SheridanR, one of Barony devs, on the topic of delayed updates on DRM storefronts:
(source: https://steamcommunity.com/app/371970/discussions/0/1290691308591078754/#c1290691308593327318)
(source: https://steamcommunity.com/app/371970/discussions/0/1290691308591078754/#c1290691937706215260)
As for me, I have mixed feelings about this. On one hand, I think that - slow transfer and PITA GOG management or not - they should maintain consistent update timing on all platforms where they sell it for money, like every other decent developer does, indie or not.
On the other hand, thought, it is hard to not agree that some of GOG mechanics and practices are straight from distributing stone age, especially for really independent, FOSS-operating systems friendly games. Galaxy isn't officially available for Linux and doesn't seems to be really planned at all (I got a feeling that whole Linux support thing was hasty decision out of SteamOS fear on GOG's management side, and lost any momentum when SteamOS took an arrow to the knee; sadly, because Free software and DRM freedom naturally comes hand-to-hand, something that CD Projekt seems to be absolutely unable to grasp since Jesus was a lad,), and there is more effort done on easy regional pricing schemes for big studios than making publishing friendly for totally independent developers.
/Estel
SheridanR, one of Barony devs, on the topic of delayed updates on DRM storefronts:
(source: https://steamcommunity.com/app/371970/discussions/0/1290691308591078754/#c1290691308593327318)
I totally acknowledge this as a problem, and you can blame me personally for not being punctual about updating our DRM-free storefronts. Nobody else on the team currently has access to that (maybe they should?!)
The bad thing is, there's no way we can make these updates more convenient to manage for DRM-free customers. Unlike steam, where pushing out updates on all three platforms happens more-or-less instantly and at the push of a button, on DRM-free platforms we have to manually login to each online portal, upload the entire package for each platform one by one, and repeat for every DRM-free storefront out there.
Frankly, it is not even financially worth it to us to go through the hassle of updating every storefront, because the only front that brings us any money on a consistent basis is Steam. Even if we combine the lifetime earnings from every other storefront out there, they hardly make up a month's paycheck that we get from Steam.
Overall, it is quite tedious to manage, and it feels rather unimportant when the only things that have been changing between releases lately are bug-fix type things.
Still, as I said, I accept personal responsibility for being tardy about the updates. You paid money for our game. I respect that. I'm actually really grateful for it.
When I get home tonight, I will update all the DRM-free storefronts with the latest patch.
That being said, for our next game: I'm not sure I want to target a DRM-free release again (outside of GPL source code releases, that is). It's just too tedious and costly to support.
...and some reasoning why, in their opinion, GOG sux for relly indie-indie developers (some valid points, to be honest): The bad thing is, there's no way we can make these updates more convenient to manage for DRM-free customers. Unlike steam, where pushing out updates on all three platforms happens more-or-less instantly and at the push of a button, on DRM-free platforms we have to manually login to each online portal, upload the entire package for each platform one by one, and repeat for every DRM-free storefront out there.
Frankly, it is not even financially worth it to us to go through the hassle of updating every storefront, because the only front that brings us any money on a consistent basis is Steam. Even if we combine the lifetime earnings from every other storefront out there, they hardly make up a month's paycheck that we get from Steam.
Overall, it is quite tedious to manage, and it feels rather unimportant when the only things that have been changing between releases lately are bug-fix type things.
Still, as I said, I accept personal responsibility for being tardy about the updates. You paid money for our game. I respect that. I'm actually really grateful for it.
When I get home tonight, I will update all the DRM-free storefronts with the latest patch.
That being said, for our next game: I'm not sure I want to target a DRM-free release again (outside of GPL source code releases, that is). It's just too tedious and costly to support.
(source: https://steamcommunity.com/app/371970/discussions/0/1290691308591078754/#c1290691937706215260)
When Barony came out a couple years ago it was about 1000x easier to get a Humble widget than to get on GOG. Actually, it's still way easier to get on Humble, and although GOG has a really nice community, the fact is, Humble is much easier to work with than GOG, for a few reasons:
1) GOG is headquartered in Cyprus and their only other international office is in Poland. They have no American presence, and do not use mediums such as paypal or dwolla, so the only way to collect royalties from them is by sending an email to one of their financial officers requesting an international bank transfer, which is a huge pain in the♥♥♥♥♥
2) The only way to get your game files updated is by logging into an ftp server, transferring the files (this is not a fast transfer, btw), then emailing a representative to publish the files to the storefront. The whole process typically takes several days, compared to several minutes for Humble and mere seconds for Steam.
3) The only way to get your game on GOG to begin with is to fill out a lengthy form and letter explaining why your game is so great and hope that they will descend from the heavens to begin months long negotiations and email correspondences to setup a storefront. If they are not interested in you, you will never hear anything back from them. Matter of fact, we had to submit our game three times before it got on their site, and they only finally accepted us because I explained that every other storefront had already had our game for months.
--- 1) GOG is headquartered in Cyprus and their only other international office is in Poland. They have no American presence, and do not use mediums such as paypal or dwolla, so the only way to collect royalties from them is by sending an email to one of their financial officers requesting an international bank transfer, which is a huge pain in the♥♥♥♥♥
2) The only way to get your game files updated is by logging into an ftp server, transferring the files (this is not a fast transfer, btw), then emailing a representative to publish the files to the storefront. The whole process typically takes several days, compared to several minutes for Humble and mere seconds for Steam.
3) The only way to get your game on GOG to begin with is to fill out a lengthy form and letter explaining why your game is so great and hope that they will descend from the heavens to begin months long negotiations and email correspondences to setup a storefront. If they are not interested in you, you will never hear anything back from them. Matter of fact, we had to submit our game three times before it got on their site, and they only finally accepted us because I explained that every other storefront had already had our game for months.
As for me, I have mixed feelings about this. On one hand, I think that - slow transfer and PITA GOG management or not - they should maintain consistent update timing on all platforms where they sell it for money, like every other decent developer does, indie or not.
On the other hand, thought, it is hard to not agree that some of GOG mechanics and practices are straight from distributing stone age, especially for really independent, FOSS-operating systems friendly games. Galaxy isn't officially available for Linux and doesn't seems to be really planned at all (I got a feeling that whole Linux support thing was hasty decision out of SteamOS fear on GOG's management side, and lost any momentum when SteamOS took an arrow to the knee; sadly, because Free software and DRM freedom naturally comes hand-to-hand, something that CD Projekt seems to be absolutely unable to grasp since Jesus was a lad,), and there is more effort done on easy regional pricing schemes for big studios than making publishing friendly for totally independent developers.
/Estel