UnReal World, the best, most complex, challenging and fun roguelike I've ever played is soon coming to Steam, it is bringing the crude, ruthless iron age winters of the north to all who are hardy enough to survive it.

But what about GOG? Well folks our friends at GOG said this to Sami Maaranen, one of Enormous Elk founders and UnReal World (URW) creator.

"Sorry but no"

Recently, Sami posted a Steam FAQ for all of the players that would like to know how the Steam release is affecting URW's current free donation based business model.

I asked him about the game coming to GOG there around January of 2015, he said once that time allows they would contact GOG.

Well it seems they did, and when I asked back recently I got this answer from Sami:

"We've contacted GOG some time ago with preliminary inquiry sheet, but they don't feel like getting the game on there. Specifically GOG doesn't think there's niche for UrW on GOG. Maybe the title isn't old or good enough. Hehe.

Meaning that a company who's been working on a game for more than 2 decades is not good enough or there is not enough niche here for the game to be featured, I just felt I needed to share this with you guys as I'm sad/furious about it, GOG has always been my first place when it comes to games, but recently I'm feeling disappointed with some of the paths they're taking, URW is not only a good old game, it has a lot of extras that comes with it, videos from the creator and so much more.

I believe it would've been a great addition to the catalog, and I believe there is a place for roguelikes in this website, since they sell a fair amount of them here.

Perhaps URW is just not good enough for them, shame on them, Steam was wiser this time.

Sorry for the small rant, I'm not one for this things.

If you'd like to know more about UnReal World or download the game to give it a try, head to their site here: http://www.unrealworld.fi/

If you'd like to support it on GOG drop by the Community Wishlist and vote for it: UnReal World

Feel free to discuss about UnReal World and roguelikes in GOG as a whole here.

Cheers!

Sigh.

Which is completely fair, but to say there is no niche on GOG for roguelikes is quite rude, or URW specifically.

I believe there is place for it here, but is a shame the game is not that known around, I've seen so many random games being added here that makes me wonder.. If there is niche for those titles here then why not URW?

But oh well, atleast Steam gave them a chance, hope they do pretty well there.

Ah well, more money for Steam then.

Actually think I suggested to GOG to talk about bringing this one a few years back, maybe as an example of a suggestion of adding donation-based games, even by taking the usual cut from the donations, in case the developers will feel the exposure is worth it. That went nowhere, so maybe that's still the stumbling block, the model. Or they have some issue with the game itself, don't know.

Permadeath sure throws me off though. Tried it, after a few messes I was doing rather well, then felt so good about I think finishing a side of the house that I went for a swim without checking anything else... and promptly drowned, being too exhausted. Uninstalled right after that, wasn't going to start over.

OMG MORE CENSORSHIP WHHY DOES GOG HATE EVERYTHIGN WRRAARARRHHGGH

Long development time does not a good game make.
Just look at what a turd Duke Nukem Forever turned out to be...

Development time for a single product is one thing, maintaining a product and updating and changing it for so long is quite another.

If Tales of Maj'Eyal is here I see no reason why UnReal World would be considered too niche. I'm wondering if this is more about business structure. Currently the game is "free but donations are appreciated" I don't see GOG having a PWYW price structure on a free game, and if they did I'm not sure how succeful it would be. I'd think that those most likley to make significant donations would rather do so directly through the developers site. Tales of Maj'Eyal had switched to a dual release structure, with a full version and a free version, before being sold through other retailers like Desura and GOG. I wonder if UnReal World could make something like that work. I wouldn't want them gimping their current game though, it would work much better if only a set of new features were put behind a pay wall. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out when it comes to Steam. Maybe it will turn into a complete mess and people will look back and say that GOG had good forsight by not getting involveed.

Oh well, I voted for this in the wishlist anyway so I'll just wait and see.

It didn't use to be free though, and when it was switched to donation-based it wasn't advertised as permanent, so an eventual return to paid may be the plan anyway, no idea.

Yes, but I've got a funny feeling that going from Free to Paid might not go over as well as the switch from Paid to Free.

Thanks for making this post. I was not aware of this game until now. I've already watched some videos of the game and peeked at their website, and from what I've seen, it seems interesting and definitely something I wouldn't mind trying. Apparently a free version of the game can be downloaded on their site (I am going to try it later).

Do we need more roguelikes? (and i like them personally speaking...)

Just go to http://www.unrealworld.fi/urw_screenshots.html and look at the screenshots from this game.
Of course the game might be good in terms of mechanics and gameplay or whatnot, but come on, a game needs a quality above certain level to be distributed on a site like GOG. It's not like GOG wants to sell any kind of home-made stuff with graphics developed in a garage.
I AM NOT SAYING THE GAME IS BAD, but .. just look at those screenshots. It looks kinda silly and amateurish.
If GOG said "no" to them, then I think I understand why.