Conquest Forums – Simultaneous Turn-Based Strategy Game

[Vir7ue]

The core gameplay is great! A lot of strategic variety packed into a few units. I also wish more turn based games would use simultaneous turns to make multiplay fluid.

However here are some of my concerns:
Repeated drag-and-drop is very straining on the wrists and much less comfortable than clicking unit and then clicking its destination. I suggest left clicks for selection/movement and right click anywhere to unselect or on the unit to cancel a previously set order

Freehand select of groups of units for movement would further smooth the experience

In-game overlaid reference of your unit match up table that can be called by a hotkey will really help beginners

Now for the business model:
$15 is reasonable for niche gamers but its still steep for mass appeal. Look at the discussion in this post http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments ... _the_dark/ and the actual developer comments about Amnesia. Minecraft made more than 10x the sales of Amnesia, and most people are pointing out how Minecraft's low price is the deciding factor. It allows people to get the game for family/friends as a gift.

Another solution might be including an extra key for a friend free of charge. This is what Frozen Synapse, which I see as the main competitor for Conquest, is doing. I realize that your current solution in attracting users is a very generous demo, but because of the mental effort required to play the game I think many people will be satisfied with just a demo game now and again, not willing to cross that price barrier.

Also, (this not really as important as the previous comments) if you rebrand your game as a beta and allow 'preorders' that allow beta access, you will likely have a stronger psychological influence on customers. They will order expecting that new content will be added, which isn't too far from the truth considering that you guys mentioned something like 'lifetime support'.

[SephiRok]

Hey,

first off thanks for the effort you've put in the feedback.

Repeated drag-and-drop is very straining on the wrists and much less comfortable than clicking unit and then clicking its destination. I suggest left clicks for selection/movement and right click anywhere to unselect or on the unit to cancel a previously set order

I mentioned this to Lorenz just the other day. A lot of people play on laptops with trackpads where it can get stressful pretty quickly -- makes beating your friends while at uni somewhat less fun :). Personally, this is on my priority list, but I'm not sure about quite some details (e.g. placing operations, right mouse atm scrolls ...).

We've been dragging things for 2 years now, and it's been one of our mottos: "drag and drop your way to victory". There is absolutely nothing you need to know. If you can drag your files around in your OS, you can command your troops. I really like how extremely simple that is. What goes along with this is also box selection, which, even if not really useful in competitive matches, a lot of beginners miss.

$15 is reasonable for niche gamers but its still steep for mass appeal. Look at the discussion in this post [...]

I do not want to go below $15. I would much rather offer special discounts and whatnot. I think $15 alone is already an excellent deal, but I entertain the idea of 2 keys for $20. Sorry if I seem so decided, but I'd rather add more content than drop the price.

On the topic of the demo, I'm not sure how much can be changed. We give a lot for free (and I really don't mind, seeing people enjoy themselves is in a way already enough), perhaps even too much. When we were initially deciding on the limitations and whatnot we had Defcon in mind.

[Vir7ue]

Thanks for your response. Yes late game I found that box selection wouldn't be very useful since you have to respond dynamically with units spread over hexes.

The business model stuff was just a heads-up on what other games have. I prefer special offers as well, eg. Frozen synapse offers 2 keys for $25. A bit on the steep side but it makes it so that two friends can split the cost.