Indie games you *almost* bought [Archive] - Indiegamer Developer Discussion Boards

svero

02-22-2005, 06:40 AM

What indie games did you come close to buying but didn't and, most importantly, what was it that held you off from buying the game? Finances? some niggly problem? something else?

For me recently

1) hamsterball - finished game too easily/quickly - lack of content
2) Revenge of the chicken - too simple, too qick - lack of content
3) Zzed - thought the game looked to small.. although i may still get it
4) Slay - i may still get it, terrible interface and graphics.. like the gameplay

- S

Black Hydra

02-22-2005, 06:56 AM

1) Cactus Bruce and the Corporate Monkeys
2) Ricochet
3) Wik and the Fable of Souls

The only reason I didn't buy any of them is because my income is very slim as I am pouring all my efforts into making my first game and cash is tight. As soon as my 'belt' loosens a bit I probably will purchase all of them. :D

Gnatinator

02-22-2005, 07:00 AM

- Operation: Inner Space
- Gish
- Storm
- Planetary Defence
- Escape Velocity: Nova

Same reason as Black Hydra

Fantus

02-22-2005, 07:03 AM

Gish. I heard so many positive reactions I wanted to buy it before trying. Luckely I downloaded the demo, and was a bit disapointed. I couldn't really understand what the fuzz is about. It's nice and has some cool stuff in it, but it just didn't cut it for me. To me the game is more like a technical gizmo instead of good ol' entertainment.

Diodor Bitan

02-22-2005, 07:05 AM

So far I bought Slay and the bridge building game from Chroniclogic. Neither were impulse buys (bought them months after playing the demo), and it was obvious for me that there would be plenty to enjoy in both games.

Come to think of it, my list of games I would like to own is very short - Uplink, maybe Soldat. On the one hand, I want a game that is worth the money and has enough depth, on the other hand, I feel that paying for the game is a commitment to learn it and go through it and finish it, which I rarely have enough patience to do anymore.

I guess I'm not much of a customer :)

Aargon : if I end up liking it it will be a mountain of work
Gish : it's physics make me feel clumsy and slow
Soldat : I don't have a clue what will I get in the full version
STUN : I wasn't any good while playing the demo (a short time). All I remember from a game in a genre I should love is being lost among the stars. I _think_ I would like the game if I would get into it, but I have no _desire_ to get into it.

tolik

02-22-2005, 07:06 AM

Cosmo Bots - yay, unlimited fun. I don't know what's wrong - I just know it's not as "big" as I want. Just a Qix...
Gish - even if it's unique, it's too slow for 2D action I prefer (Metal Slug?). I would buy Bud Redhead instead if I'll get tired of Lomax.
Magic/Puzzle Inlay - too short for single geometry mode. Could be completed before you quit when it'll expire and lock itself.
Twisty Tracks - YAY, I WANT IT... but... I miss "speed up button" so it becomes boring after some point. Especially since you need to replay everything after you die.
Shroomz - Mr. Driller clone! Finally! Yay! It's glitchy.
Escape Velocity: Nova - It has too huge expiration period so I played through it a lot of times...

Daire Quinlan

02-22-2005, 07:15 AM

Breakquest, even though I hate arkanoid games. I think it was GameTunnel that pointed out that after BreakQuest, no-one EVER need to make an arkanoid game again. I think they may well be right. I'm actually APPALLED at how slick the entire game is.

also tried and not buyed ... Slay and Gish.

I find that unemployment is a big disincentive to buying games...

D.

Raptisoft

02-22-2005, 07:28 AM

> 1) hamsterball - finished game too easily/quickly - lack of content

Lol... Svero, this must be the sixth thread that you've said this, or the
equivalent, in the last week. We'll fix it up in Hamsterball 2, okay? :)

Raptisoft

02-22-2005, 07:33 AM

For my part, been so busy lately that I haven't had a chance to look at much. But I downloaded World of Pirates the other day. If that had better graphics and didn't have an "indie interface" then I would buy it. Great concept, pretty fun once you can figure out where everything is.

I almost want to clone it.

papillon

02-22-2005, 07:35 AM

I'm still hemming and hawing over Zzed, which I like but am not happy about the surprise 35% price increase. I had the credit card out and everything! My other half is replaying the demo constantly and muttering about how he wants to find someone in the States to buy it for us rather than take the extra charge... *shrug*

princec

02-22-2005, 07:36 AM

BreakQuest - brilliant though it is, I had my fill when the original Arkanoid came out ;) (yeah I know it's a whole new dimension but I'm lazy)

Space Tripper - fecking aliens that don't die quickly enough when I shoot them deserve to be, er, shot. The game is otherwise 100% perfect and I'd buy it in a trice, apart from that gameplay bugbear

Icy Tower - because it's inexplicably free

Cas :)

ManuelFLara

02-22-2005, 07:39 AM

When I like a game, there are very few reasons for not buying them, but they often happen :)

1st - I don't have a big salary (part time) and try to save as much money as I can as I'm just starting my business, so it must be a GREAT GREAT game to me in order to buy it.
2nd - I can't afford to lose time playing at that moment. I have also some games waiting for me to have time and beat them (Zelda WW comes to mind). This is the main reason I don't buy WoW, it'd just kill my productivity :)
3rd - Get bored before the demo ends. Maybe because it's not my kind of game (most highly-casual games) or because it just gets repetitive.

Some examples of games I didn't buy:
- Breakquest - reason #1 but planning to buy it when I have some free cash. It's just the perfect game to take a 5 minutes break.
- Hamsterball - reason #2 but planning to buy it. When I saw it I was just amazed by its level of quality. Impressive.
- Fuzzee Fever - just waiting for the PC release!
- Alien Hominid - I think it's not in European stores yet, but when it arrives and have some cash I'll buy it, just seems great.
- Gish - reason #3. Technologically cool, must too slow-paced for me. Alien Hominid beats Gish hard on that.

svero

02-22-2005, 07:39 AM

Lol... Svero, this must be the sixth thread that you've said this, or the
equivalent, in the last week. We'll fix it up in Hamsterball 2, okay? :)

Heh... what can I say? It just keeps coming up. As I was writing it I thought.. well maybe I should leave Hamsterball out this time. But then it was a game that I almost bought, so i just fit.

Hamumu

02-22-2005, 08:09 AM

(note: I buy no games other than Tony Hawk, Ratchet & Clank, or decent PS2 games that I can find for $4, so I have bought no indie games, but the ones below are the ones that didn't quite make my must-buy-if-I-ever-buy list)

I'm with the Gish crowd. I've heard it gets better in the non-demo levels, but I am REALLY glad I waited to see a demo. I found it slow as a ball of tar. The way you need to do special things in order to jump more than an 1/8" off the ground is just annoying. If that one thing were changed - make his normal jump height be around the normal size for a platformer - that would probably do it for me.

Cactus Bruce would almost make it, but the fact that it's just a set of linear levels ruins it for me. Give me an island map, various ways to progress, make me buy the buddies, more unlockables, more modes...

Cosmo Bots - it's fast, simple and fun. Simple. I just can't part with money for something that's a quickie diversion. On the other hand, I also can't part with money for a huge complex RPG because I don't want to invest my life in it. Tricky!

Crimsonland - Great gameplay, not enough depth. I wanted more than what I got from the demo, but not much more was offered. See Cactus Bruce for fixes.

After The End - See Crimsonland, it's the same damn game.

Chromadrome - No real excuses... maybe it doesn't offer enough beyond the demo, I don't know. Or maybe I just felt I'd never get good enough at it to win the top medals and stuff.

Outpost Kaloki - Another case of not much past the demo existing (or at least just more of the same), and just linear levels. A grid of different challenges I can attempt would be more fun than being pulled through a story. However, the nature of the game is such that each level is kinda the same thing, so that might not do it. I'm not sure what would fix this for me.

Jim Buck

02-22-2005, 09:10 AM

I'm another one in the Gish crowd. The movie alone almost made me bought it, but then I heard the demo would be out real soon now. Once I played the demo, the controls were just way too frustrating to want to pay for such continued torture.

impossible

02-22-2005, 10:51 AM

Gish: (if someone from Chronic Logic sees this thread they'll probably cry.) I may still buy it, but there wasn't enough in the demo to really get me excited about the game, and at the time I had a lot of other entertainment options available to me. Freeware games like N and Dokutsu have given me more than enough platformer entertainment.

Garagegames Zap: Probably my favorite indie game, but there is really 0 incentive to register. The "demo" is really the full game. Sure you get kicked off every 3 rounds, but its a really minor nusance, you can instantly log back into the game you were just in at the start of the round. I think you also get some kind of special distinction to show you're playing a registered game, but that doesn't really matter.

Outpost Kaloaki: I didn't really see a deep enough game to want to buy it.

Hamsterball and Breakquest are two games that I liked a lot but I never even considered buying them because I didn't want to play the games beyond what the demos offered.

I wonder if some of these games that appeal to slightly less casual gamers would do better at a lower price point. I think a lot of the time its a case of "this game is good, but I don't know if its really worth $20." This is especially true considering you know you can get slightly older (but really good) PC and console titles often for less than $20.

Ricardo C

02-22-2005, 11:19 AM

My reasons for not buying as often as I'd like are financial, so this is not a list of games I gave up on, but simply a list of games that are waiting to be purchased, and so I really have nothing bad to say about them:

Cactus Bruce: Freakishly addictive, great lead character, fun gameplay, the works. Sure, I could say "oh it'd be better if Steve did this..." but the game is already great.

BreakQuest: VERY impressed by this one, but I'm not a Breakout/Arkanoid addict, so off to the waiting list it went, for now.

Gink in Trouble: Simple, fun, and addictive. But again, I can't justify the expense right now.

Laser Dolphin: "Echo goes Postal" is more like it :D Great old-school gameplay, and a gorgeously rendered lead character.

Big Kahuna Reef: The greatest match-3 game of all? Possibly.

Beesly's Buzzwords: Never been one for Bookworm-type games, but this one has the right personality, to say nothing of the absolutely incredible soundtrack :)

Andy

02-22-2005, 12:33 PM

Wow! Nice question Steve. Hope you will enjoy by my answer as well.

Ricochet.

We were in need to check and buy it for the work on our own Arkanoid clone and what a luck?! - game freezes right on the exit when trial period expires under our W98 system and next time you enter the game it starts over again - what a pleasure! I have reported the bug to James but looks like he don't care at all - he was recommending me to report the bug to somebody else in his company because this is not his job :confused: - what I've really noticed after that we are downloading only Reflexive trial versions of any games we want to try - was working pretty great till the last published titles - nice job guys! - pretty useful for us - poor game developers. :D

REM: To the talks about the portals... ;)

Andy

02-22-2005, 12:35 PM

Magic/Puzzle Inlay - too short for single geometry mode. Could be completed before you quit when it'll expire and lock itself.

You'd buy Puzzle Inlay Anatoly?! :confused:
May I ask any your explanation on this? Because as far as could get this game is far away from the directions you prefer. :confused:

Rod Hyde

02-22-2005, 12:57 PM

Indie games I almost bought:

Mutant Storm - fantastic game, had my hand on my wallet several times, but ultimately I felt stupid because I couldn't complete the demo.
Wik - liked it well enough, but not enough to pay for it once the time ran out.
Cosmo Bots - played plenty, but lost interest.
Best Friends - my 4 year old loves it, but the demo is plenty enough for her.

The games I keep coming back to are:

Global Defense Network - I keep trying to beat my personal best on each level. This doesn't require more than 5 minutes commitment, so it's perfect when killing time.
NetHack - the only game I've installed on every PC I've ever owned. Primitive. ASCII graphics. Would never have played it if I hadn't played Rogue, which I would never have played if I hadn't been bored in a lab many years ago. Yet still I play it.

--- Rod

illume

02-22-2005, 02:22 PM

gish, platypuss, hamsterball, supreame cheese.

Those games were fun, looked nice, and had quite a few levels. They also gave me quite a bit of time to play them without kicking me out.

I will probably buy them at some point when I have more cash lying around. I would have bought gish if it was about half the price.

I also liked Jamuls Supreame cheese for the lots of levels, and cool things part. But that came on CD, so I couldn't be bothered with that(living in Australia). A download option for broad band people would be nice. Considering you can get a gig of bandwidth for less than 10 cents these days.

Daire Quinlan

02-22-2005, 02:32 PM

Dammit, This thread made me go off and play the demo version of breakquest again. and then i went and BOUGHT it. downloading as we speak ... ooo ...

Though I have to say, Bit of an impulse buy, so you can imagine the horror when i got a page saying that the order would be processed in a couple of HOURS. Thankfully they seemed to zip through it fairly quickly (5 minutes tops) but then i got an email from Nurium itself saying they'd send the registration within 48 hours. TWO STINKIN' DAYS ???? I almost rang up my CC company to cancel the order right there ! NOW I would like to add that this reaction was purely because i hadn't read the 3rd email that arrived at the same time, with the actual registration information on it, but man, way to go giving me a heart attack !

D.

97% .... 98% ..... 99% .... ummm, gotta go ....

Hamumu

02-22-2005, 03:02 PM

Yeah, we offer everything both download and CD (except our release of today, Pumpkin Pop for the Mac, which is download only!). So no more excuses, it's Supreme time! I think we introduced downloads way before Supreme came out though... you may be concerned by the warning it gives you if you try to buy Supreme as a download. That's to scare off the people who would order the download to save $5, but not be computer savvy enough to deal with something that takes 12+ hours on their 2400 baud modem. As it says in the warning, you're welcome to go ahead and download it, we just want to warn you that it's big.

As for CDs, I'm curious why you couldn't be bothered with it (maybe a PM is less derailly) - we ship anywhere on Earth for $5, so it's not that it would cost you more due to your distance. Maybe it's just the long wait.

Stu

02-22-2005, 03:28 PM

I enjoyed Hamsterball but would not buy it for the same reason as the others. I played all levels in the demo. However, my brother's kid smashed his ceramic cow bank all over the kitchen floor in order to acquire it. He didn't mean to break it but he's six and he got all excited about pouring his money out to see if he had enough. Poor kid...shame on you Raptisoft.

I really like the graphics in Platypus but I'm not a huge fan of the gameplay so I played out my hour and didn't pay Mr. Flack a dime. Still, I expect he will get my money in the future as I like the looks of Cletus Clay.

I considered buying Bejeweled 2 Deluxe but bought Big Kahuna Reef instead. I just liked the theme better. That's it for puzzle games for me. I find it relaxing and entertaining but I have no real puzzle fetish to keep me fiddling with them.

I just played out my 90 minutes of Wik and haven't bought it yet. I haven't bought it because my wallet is down on the kitchen counter and I would have to go get it. However, when I am forced to refill my glass of iced tea, I will then likely grab the wallet and bring it up here. At that point I'm fairly certain that Wik is bought.

I considered buying Trivia Machine but didn't because I found as I played the demo that I already know every dang thing. :)

Sybixsus

02-22-2005, 03:31 PM

HamsterBall - Lack of content ( sorry, but I actually made this comment to a friend just yesterday )

Wik and the Fable of Souls - I was short of cash when I felt the urge to buy and haven't gone back to it since. I still might.

DDD Pool - The controls got in the way of everything I loved about it. On the plus side, it did inspire me to write my own pool game.

Anthony Flack

02-22-2005, 04:05 PM

Mostly due to the usual excuses of lack of funds, and more importantly lack of time (plus I have lots of games for my SNES, N64 and Dreamcast that I'd rather play which I also don't have time for at the moment - I'm just stockpiling at the moment). So I also don't tend to go buying games. But which ones do I like enough to almost buy?

Hamsterball - yeah, it needed to be a bit more challenging. And the challenge needed to come less from the lack of mouse sensitivity (I have a very small desk). Is it too short? Maybe, but each level is so damn cool, if only I didn't crank through them so quickly...

Marble Blast - The demo was really appealing for some reason. No reason not to get it apart from the overarching reasons above.

That Target Shooting Game By The Guy Who Made That Other Marble Game - uh, what was it called? Really simple but it hooked me.

Pompom's games - also, no real excuse

That Bouncing Ball Block Busting Game with the Mario-ish Feel. I liked it a lot.

Breakquest - I admire it a lot. I wanted to like it. But it still seems to have the same problems typical of PC Breakout - long, long levels and you don't die enough. Getting through the levels felt like an endurance test. If you like that sort of thing I expect it's brilliant though.

Gish - Yes, the trailer looked great, but once I played it I ended up not liking it that much.

Zen Puzzle Garden - Joseph gave me a copy, so I didn't have to. It's a very fine little game.

Alien Hominid - since they decided not to make a PC version. It looked like a game I would like, but I'm not buying an Xbox just to play it. Well, I'd also get Outrun 2, but still.

I am sure there are others out there that almost did it for me. But it is very difficult for a game to be exciting enough for me to actually truly want it. I just have too many unplayed games sitting around already.

papillon

02-22-2005, 04:16 PM

Oh yeah, if we're counting might have bought but managed to wrangle a free copy out of the developer, Alien Flux. I kept looking at the price tag and going maybe, maybe not, maybe... and then managed to win it off cas anyway. :) (Which doesn't help its sales chart, but hey, I'm poorer than he is!)

svero

02-22-2005, 05:53 PM

Dammit, This thread made me go off and play the demo version of breakquest again. and then i went and BOUGHT it. downloading as we speak ... ooo ...

I hope the breakquest people are listening, since I as the thread starter will now expect my affiliate commission.

bentlegen

02-22-2005, 06:09 PM

I'd been downloading/trying a whole bunch of indie games lately, and BreakQuest in particular grabbed my eye. It just seemed like such a brilliantly executed title with loads of content that was totally worth my $20.

Unfortunately, for all my praises, I don't have time to play games anymore, and thus never purchased it. Sorry ;)

- ben

DangerCode

02-22-2005, 07:42 PM

I recently almost bought Trivia Machine which is usually not my type of game.

It's really good, but I did find that a couple of the questions were worded wrong (i.e. Where was the first lady during the terrorist attacks of Septemember 11th, 2002?)

gmcbay

02-22-2005, 08:28 PM

Wow, glad I caught this thread. I thought I was the only person in the world who felt that way about Gish. I absolutely love the idea of the game, the theory of it, but I absolutely hated it when I played it. It pains me to say that because obviously a lot of hard work went into the game, but I just didn't find it fun, and was at a loss as to why so many people go ga-ga over it.

Jim Buck

02-22-2005, 10:19 PM

I think I mentioned this in another thread about Gish, but the controls are such that it's absolutely amazing it shipped that way.. they are so hard to use that it should have been ironed out in beta testing. I'm *real* curious as to the conversion rate of that game.

Vectrex

02-22-2005, 10:26 PM

about gish, the controls seem weird at first but they are fine and make sense once you snap out of expecting it to be 'normal'. Heaven forbid the controls aren't exactly the same as every other platformer! :) But yes they could have introduced them better and made it clear that it's not like mario controls. oh btw some comment about jumping, it's actually great to jump and easy once you take into account the physics of a ball of tar (which I believe is the point)
but alas noone has the slightest bit of patience anymore (me included). I hope it sold well as it would give me hope for my games

20thCenturyBoy

02-22-2005, 11:10 PM

Heh heh - game devs never have time to play games!

Jim Buck

02-22-2005, 11:30 PM

Games should not be designed in such a way that you need to "get used" to the controls in order to enjoy it. Sure, there are exceptions that have no other choice - Halo on XBox is a good example. (They probably couldn't have done a better job than they did.) However, Gish is a game where they could have *easily* made the controls a lot nicer from the get-go.

Not to derail the thread into a bash-Gish thread, but I really really wanted to want this game. I loved the graphical style, the dynamic lighting, the cool physics ideas, etc.. I was just really disappointed with the control.. which is the most important part of a game - how the user interacts with it.

Fantus

02-23-2005, 12:43 AM

but I really really wanted to want this game

Couldn't have said it better.

A almost buy I forgot to mention was Pax Galaxia. I played the demo quite often and was surprised how addicting this game was. The problem with Pax is that I didn't feel like playing again each time I exited it. Deliberitly saying each time, as somehow I fired it up again to see what that magical 'I'm somehow interested' factor is. Perhaps if the game was more finished. The menu just sucked, as well as the tutorial (it took me 3 games to find out I simply can drag arrows between planets, or constellations, or whatever it is supposed to be).

Smooth it out, and I'll be the first customer in line :)

JoshuaSmyth

02-23-2005, 01:34 AM

Well all the indie games I *almost* bought are games that I will buy, once I get some more cash. Platapus is on that list, so is marble blast and so is dweep and aragon deluxe.

princec

02-23-2005, 01:51 AM

Eehhh, whyever not? Sometimes getting used to the controls is part of the fun and challenge. Sometimes that's all the game is really about! That's hardcore gaming for ya.

I bought Gish on impulse and in retrospect kinda wished I didn't, because although the controls were fine I just found the game a little dull. No shooting, see. I should learn to stick to what I like.

Cas :)

mahlzeit

02-23-2005, 01:52 AM

Recently: Rummi (http://www.rummigame.com) - A computer version of Manipulation Rummy (Rummikub). I liked playing it, but it just sucks up too much time.

A little while ago I considered getting: 3D Live Pool, Dweep, and Unipong.

Anthony Flack

02-23-2005, 06:49 AM

Don't forget to buy Platypus from my website so I get my affiliate commision! ;)

Andy

02-23-2005, 07:33 AM

Oh, right because I've mentioned Anthony name in a row.

Platypus - the game that I shouldn't buy - because right after we ordered it and played a month or so we got some PC magazine from Poland as a gift with full free CD version of the game on their CD.

I do realize the problems Mike met to port the game to downloadable format. But hell Anthony! That CD version was even brighter with such a deep colors and such a superb graphics - nobody could reproduce it! I hate you for that! Just to keep you informed... :D

ManuelFLara

02-23-2005, 08:12 AM

ut hell Anthony! That CD version was even brighter with such a deep colors and such a superb graphics - nobody could reproduce it!
I didn't know the retail version of Platypus was in a higher graphical quality. What differs from the downloadable version? Are the graphics & sounds lossily compressed or what?

Andy

02-23-2005, 08:32 AM

Yes. Some cuts in graphics quality are obviously exist.

If I recall correctly Mike was starting from something like 35 MB - so, you could imagine.

REM (edit): What I appreciated even more in that full version - the whole clay technology is clear represented in the full version - like a training book. Saying by another words that was pretty nice gift for us for the permission to publish demo version of our game on their CD. :)

Midnight Synergy

02-23-2005, 09:01 AM

Interesting thread - and I too must add my Gish, Hamsterball and Breakquest vote.

Gish looked great from the trailer, but the gameplay controls and the ultra-dark graphics completely turned me off.

Hamsterball was great fun, but I also got through the available content too quickly. I might just end up buying that one still, just to show my support for what is surely one of the best games of 2004.

Breakquest - I was sure I was going to buy it based on the first demo, but by the time the final demo had gotten around I had gotten a little bored by it. I agree with a previous comment that the levels sometimes seem more tedious than fun. Although again I might just plunk down $20, again to show my support for great indie games.

My main problem is lack of time. I have a brand new game cube and Mario Sunshine and Zelda waiting for me - and I've played it exactly once so far this year. I've also been eyeing the Diablo II battle chest - but I don't want to buy it in case it is too much fun and sucks up whatever time I have left. ;)