I wonder... If we could almost universally get everyone on GoG to agree to buy X game on day one when it comes out, and it's 25% off... Then we could say 'here's 25,000 guaranteed sold copies if you release here!'. Yeah that's sorta how the wishlist works, but that's more to denote interest, not 'i would buy immediately'... But if the game is good, i'm willing to buy games under $20 with little to no pushing (although perhaps i'm a hypocrite since that's more the case for console games, yet when i actually go to buy games if they are over $10 i tend to really fight with myself... stupid mental block for being frugal!); Still guaranteeing 25k copies on GoG could go a long ways to helping smaller indie games/devs...

Regardless the game has to be good, and there's so much shovelware pushed on steam recently, like unitZ re-releases (8 of them so far?). I suppose more the game would have to prove itself a little, much like Terraria has proved itself to be a good game (even if i have issues trying to play it), but having a few trustworthy Goggers who aren't biased and can vouch for the game, and we all agree to buy the game... that would be interesting...

Isn't that pre-ordering?
Giving an agreement to buy an unknown game.....nope.
And i don't believe that the votes from the wishlist are related to the real sales.

And for Telepath...there are many reason why devs don't flood the market with new RPGs.
Not only the time it takes to make one but they are only minor sellers. I mean real, tactical/turnbased RPG's.
Add the problems with small advertising, general rejection of everything *Indie* and finally the price (I love
RPGs but i can buy well known games for less money).

No... Preordering would be full price and buying before it's out (perhaps with a pre-order bonus tacked on), while what i'm thinking is more along the lines of a few Goggers all agreeing the game is good, recommending it, and people who all follow them (not too religiously hopefully...?) would buy it.

Of course i'm referring to most likely the same people who would want to buy the game anyways... but they can guarantee they'd be willing (and wanting?) to buy it at the first 25% discount rather than like me who waits for 70%+ discounts most of the time...

But my idea was more hypothetical, and with steam as it is (new release games getting swamped behind because of shovelware) they could hopefully have better releases here...

It's not just about good or not. I'd argue that the share of good games among new releases is higher than that of the classics. The #1 criterion is if a person is interested in it. And making "all the people" interested in something is completely unfeasible, because interests are nested fractally. Hell, the Gold Box series are the games I played the most in the 90s, but the release thread in the Russian forum has four replies, one of which is a guy complaining about the promo, and one is me.

Aren't russians prefer strategy games over other game genres ?

I have no idea, honestly. I'd hazard a guess that the nostalgia crowd would be most interested in games which had (pirate) Russian localizations. The recent Steam stats article says Russians love WWII-themed games -- that's surprising, because Western games mostly offer a Western perspective, and this year there was quite a shitstorm over evil, evil Europe falsifying history and spitting in Russia's face by celebrating V-day on May 8. That'll give you an idea of how informed Russians are about the Western perspective. Regarding Steam stats, piracy may also be a factor, since (multiplayer) strategies provide an incentive to buy the game.

really interesting article to have insights into the business-wise perspective of a small indie developer - enjoyed the read. Have to admit that game flew completely under my radar so i can't really comment on if it should have deserved higher sales or not - but after checking out the game right now i feel like it's lacking a individual selling point which makes it special and also the price seems a bit steep for such kind of game - maybe pricing it at sth like 10,49$ would have generated higher sales and due to that higher net profits

I don't know how you came up with that number but business-wise, instead of 10,49$, it would be much better to drop to a 9,99$/€ price point just for the psychological effect of not being in the 10$ tier and secondly, you can get included in the "Under 10$/€" search tab on the steam homepage ;)

well your being included in the under 10$ search argument is good and valid! I rarely use the below 10$ filter myself but i guess you are right assume that many people do and then rather buy an okish game for 9,99$ while missing a good game dunno for 12,99$
Picked the 10,49 for the reverse psychological effect though - meaning wanting to signal "We surely believe our game is worth a two digit sum but we don't want to rip you off" - higher price target can also be used to signal "quality"

With my current backlog and spending spree, I have promised myself that I wouldn't buy anything unless it's 75% off. The only exceptions might be expansions to games that I've played recently or am playing (Pillars of Eternity and The Witcher 3 come into mind). In this case I would probably go for a 25% off.

Halfway was awesome. Did people not like it here?

Actually, I think doing the opposite would be more effective ;)

=> Like, buy a 50€ title only so you will be somehow "forced" to think twice before buying it and you will likely play it for sure. If you were a kid in the 80's-90's when games costed around 75€ (in Western Europe) and you could only get one at Christmas or your birthday, there was back then no backlog or spending problem ^o^

The game hardly got any attention here, meager sales and only a few reviews, mostly of the lukewarm and somewhat unfair variety.Indie strategy games are a bit of a rarity, we should welcome the ones that do such a fine job. Halfway isn't perfect by all means and there are balance issues with short range and medium range weapons but the main target of negative criticism was the hit chance RNG which several people have described as being worthless. Just because the RNG doesn't behave as lenient as in other games doesn't mean it's all broken.

If one uses proper tactics, the hit chances aren't a problem. I finished the game twice (on normal and hard) and it went very well, lots of fun. I like fire fights where you have to think twice before firing because you can't be certain that you'll place the shot. That reduces the predictable "strategy puzzle" factor a bit and forces you to play a tight game in regards to position and cover. It seemed to me that people wanted to play Halfway the exact same way they played XCOM or other games and then got angry because that doesn't work in Halfway. Cuter graphics doesn't mean everything is going to be cuter.

Anyway, the game is absolutely playable and enjoyable and I think a little bit more self-honesty from people wouldn't hurt, meaning that personal failure to master the game mechanics doesn't mean the game sucks. Low hit chances aren't a glitch or bug or even bad design, it just means one needs to adapt to the game and figure out how to make things work. This isn't a hardcore strategy game and it isn't unfairly hard, with proper tactics it's fairly easy on normal and quite manageable even in game mode++ with only 2 or 3 instances where things get tough as nails.

I agree with everything you said. Sucks about the unfair reception from some of the babies.

I loved it and got it day one here. It was kind of tough, but that just meant I had to pay attention.

I grew up in the eastern block where before 200x the only way to get games was from the shady russian bootleggers. And they were dirt cheap in hindsight (though I found them quite expensive back then). So it's very hard for me psychologically to justify paying even something above $15 for a single game.