Price Discussion

[lethal ore]

Like it could have no customization and I still would’ve bought it

[swift schooner]

Yeah I just don't like throwing crazy theoretical ideas like that around but like I said i'm sure the devs got their vision in mind and will roll with it

[severe pasture]

30 is perfectly reasonable. We get no micro transactions and they keep updating the game. Kids will keep playing Roblox or Fortnite. This is much closer to Garry's mod which means modding can't come soon enough

[lethal ore]

There’s plenty of games that don’t do this lol. Some will even let you build WITH the stuff you don’t own if you join someone who does

[boreal tree]

but thing is though, self-expression is a big thing for some people, I dont wanna be a generic brickhead nobody that isnt unique

[boreal tree]

that was partly a joke'

[swift schooner]

Absolutely and i'd prefer it stay that way

[lethal ore]

I know, it’s a big added benefit, like I love that it’s there I’m just saying it’s a small aspect when you’re there to build

[boreal tree]

Yeah but like, I'd rather pay for more cosmetic options or tool skins rather than bricks

[swift schooner]

I've seen a lot of pretty trollish esque threads suggesting freemium practices or "game dead" and i'm just like please don't

[boreal tree]

what would you do if minecraft had paywalled blocks that you can't obtain unless you pay for a dlc

[swift schooner]

Bedrock does thats besides the point LOL

And even then I guess thats "UGC"

[boreal tree]

I feel like if we have the system in Brickadia, it's going to be used by people to artificially increase the "value" of their builds, like lets say I got Pack #256 which has Awesome Unique Bricks™ that few others have due to its price so now people flock to my builds

[void zodiac]

absolutely no

[swift schooner]

Yeah I don't like the ideas of any of that but only the future will tell truthfully

[boreal tree]

and if we go with this logic, that means people will flock to those who bought said DLCs just to play with DLC bricks

XYZ's Freebuild (DLC BRICKS) 24/7 | 30/30 Players

ZYX Regular Freebuild 24/7 | 2/30 Players

[swift schooner]

I got 900 hours out of an alpha, 50 hours rn in EA, $30 is more than fine and I hope devs can explore other avenues of making money but I just don't like the idea of paying for more customizatiation/bricks in a game that is solely about being creative in those aspects

[boreal tree]

avatar parts pack or tool skins doesn't change anything gameplay wise compared to bricks imho

[void zodiac]

yuh

gameplay should NOT change in relation to if you own dlc or not

that's why i suggested cosmetics

[swift schooner]

Tool skins for paying $10 for a "supporter" pack or whatever sure but idk I still disagree with paying for avatar stuff either

People said Kickstarter but its a bit late for that cant do Kickstarters for an already established product and would also create needless stretch goals ontop of probably already immense stress

I still think Patreon could be an avenue, people could chip in what they want at it and the devs can continue working

[void zodiac]

yeah, the only bad thing about patreons is it limits overall community - dev communication

because it encourages "an incentive" for buying hte patreon

so devs immediately think "oh yeah i'll show behind the scenes stuff"

which means they Can't show that as often to the general public

[swift schooner]

Idk i've seen some games just do like Discord roles for Patreons that are a funny color but I guess thats kind of a base Discord feature now with boosts

[shrewd stump]

I hope they don’t paywall avatar stuff just because it feels like that is a core part of the game for a lot of the community, but tool skins would go hard lol

[boreal tree]

i want my orange tool set pack pls

[swift schooner]

This 100000%

[shrewd stump]

Legit would buy a gold tool pack just for shits and giggles
No clue if they could actually get a good ROI on more in depth tool stuff like a Balloon Toy set or Steampunk tools

[swift schooner]

Like no paywalling avatar stuff/bricks please..... something as small as a cosmetic tool idc go wild if you wanna

[sudden sluice]

getting a rattlecan as a paint tool skin that applies paint with a spray instead of a laser would be fun

[shrewd stump]

Just make a shiny gold and diamonds tool pack that’s absurd and call it “Supporter DLC” and price it at something dumb like $50

And then give us an option to prevent anyone from joining a server without that pack (jk jk that’s an awful idea)

[boreal tree]

naw i dont think we'll get ultra expensive prices for cosmetic shits lmfao

i feel like it will go at a reasonable 10-15 USD for a small cosmetic pack

or maybe lower idk

[shrewd stump]

Lol yeah I think $10 would be reasonable for a tool pack

[void zodiac]

a tool pack that makes the Flamethrowers shoot bubbles referencing the pyroland set in tf2 🔥

[pulsar fjord]

I know I've seen zeblote reference it but I do think the deep rock galactic supporter DLCs are the way to go for future revenue, you get a lot of value for money on those

I don't have an issue paying for a whole pack of cosmetics like that every once in awhile if it's a non-predatory developer I really like

it's when games start asking me to cough up five bucks or worse for a single outfit that I start squinting really hard

[void zodiac]

triple A games don't deserve your money, brickadia does :3

[pulsar fjord]

though I would question the tact of hypothetically releasing a DLC like that anytime soon when the game is currently a bit expensive for what it offers (albeit yes, it is a great foundation and I gifted a stupid amount of copies of it)

that's how you turn into ARK

[limber parrot]

Even though I mostly share the opinion that a setup like DRG's Supporter DLCs are a strong direction to look in... When it comes to a game like Brickadia with such a heavy emphasis on player self-expression, UGC, and avatar customization, I really don't think entire avatar assets being locked behind what amounts to a tip jar is exactly the right way to go, especially considering how much work is put into each of those cosmetics.

[waxen osprey]

yep.

[limber parrot]

What I think would be a good route to pursue is Supporter DLCs that instead can change the visuals on a player's in-game Profile, that would ideally be possible to view from Creations on the gallery or when in a server with said player.

[void zodiac]

that's a good idea

[limber parrot]

Ranging from things like the idea of "flairs"- little stickers you can place around your profile, or even just changing the colors or style of your profile

The flairs thing, I think, strikes me as a solid approach, because you have way more opportunities to allow for, like, the "showing off collectibles" kind of thing that die-hard supporters might want to have, plus some sort of tangible, but not intrusive way for it to be flexed.

I've been meaning to draw a mockup of what i mean for months now but alas, I am lazy

[covert steppe]

essentially what discord does with nitro and locking profile customisation to a subscription (in this case a one time upgrade)

someone suggested tool skins as well that might be neat to have as dlc

[limber parrot]

Ehhh, I do think the average player should have some amount of control over how their profile looks, but the Supporter upgrades should just be a little something extra.

Like, the difference between just changing a color and an About Me vs having a fancy border or design on it, you dig?

[austere harness]

golden hammer

[subtle raptor]

bruh

[void zodiac]

founder's pack that removes the hammer and turns it into the lego separator piece

[austere harness]

crowbar

[patent canopy]

I feel like this immense price tag (whether justified or not) already caused the game to die 🫠

[lost trench]

they had exactly as many players as when the game was a free demo and even less when it was a free alpha

I'm pretty sure people are just waiting on more features

[patent canopy]

I really hope so

[lost trench]

also there's 60 players on at 5 AM EST

that's not nearly as dead as it could be

164 total

[void yew]

There’s not really much to do in the game right now other than build, make contraptions, or play or make deathmatches, and 3 of those are better experienced solo in a lot of people’s minds especially for large scale projects, due to performance… this is just dooming for no reason

Yes the game launched early access with not a lot else to do other than those things, but if people don’t want to pay for that I’m sure they’ll check in later when it gets better. I don’t think this game will ever be as big as Roblox and I don’t think the devs envision it that way either, and that’s fine

The audience of “people who want to play with virtual LEGO bricks and have £29” is inherently going to be smaller than “children looking for free game experiences made by other children”

[lost trench]

estimated sales on steamdb are already above the 10,000 bare minimum sales they need to make to keep working on the game

[void yew]

I understand wanting the game to be bigger and last a long time but I genuinely don’t think people know how to deal with a indie early access game

All this dooming all this price discussion

[lost trench]

context for those that came in late: the devs have spent $200,000 in the past four years of development (they only really started keeping track then, development's been eight years so far)
10,000 sales is the minimum to break even and recoup the cost of development

if the price were, say, $20? now that's 15,000 sales just to break even

[waxen osprey]

in the words of scatman john, those things you call dead haven't yet had a chance to be born

[patent canopy]

And it doesn't have to be as big as Roblox. But I really think that it could be some kind of a new Gmod — if just the price was a bit lower.
But who knows, maybe the full release with a good discount (10-20%) will attract enough players to give the build worlds enough life

[void yew]

I don’t really see what having more people active and critiquing what’s there for the price even if it was lowered for launch and potentially risking killing the development as being helpful at this juncture if im really honest. It’s also not what they did, so it doesn’t matter to even consider as a hypothetical.

They clearly launched at a price they were comfortable with. I don’t think it will go down even when the game is “finished” at this point, other than occasional sales which is entirely up to them.
If people see more value in the game when it has more stuff and feel it’s worth it then they will buy it. Ultimately the game launched in this state because the userbase feedback was overwhelmingly “yeah I’ll pay for this if it comes out like this!” from the nextfest demo and we even knew how much they’d charge for it then. They had incentive to charge as much as they did. For non early adopters the game represents Potential. I don’t see why launching with a underwhelming early access build for guaranteed sicko support so they can keep working on it until non sickos want to buy it is that bad an idea

[lost trench]

they've said they'll increase the price for full release

because by then the game will have a lot more to do

[patent canopy]

Well yeah, that's a logical thing to do as it also gets more content over time

[misty pasture]

I hope it isn't by too much, I can't imagine people would drop 50$ on a game that "looks like blockland" or "looks like roblox"

[lost trench]

the most common estimate has been $40 but they haven't said anything (and likely haven't even decided yet)

[patent canopy]

I just meant some kind of launch sale for some days.

I think 35 could be a good compromise for what it offers after EA

40 bucks is overpriced

[misty pasture]

Honestly as it is, I kinda had trouble justifying 30$ for it. Although people have said I am pretty stingy with where I spend my money

And technically a friend bought it for me before I could actually buy it myself

[lost trench]

I'm not sure 40 bucks is overpriced for a game I could keep playing for years

I paid $20 for blockland in 2009, which is $30 in today's dollars, and I kept playing it for over a decade

[misty pasture]

Honestly I feel like 30-35 dollars would be a good compromise. Could go a route where the game is 20$ but you could pay 10$ for a 24/7 dedicated server or something similar. But ofc no microtransactions beyond that

[patent canopy]

$40 would only attract a niche of players though

[lost trench]

the economics of hosting dedicated servers for people are not favorable

[lost trench]

how niche is helldivers 2?

[misty pasture]

20 dollar brickadia but you have to pay 10 dollar for avatar customization /j

[lost trench]

the cheaper it is the more microtransactions they'd have to do to pay for further development

[patent canopy]

I wouldn't describe Helldivers 2 as a niche game since pve shooters are pretty common

[lost trench]

unless the game really takes off

[misty pasture]

free brickadia but you have to buy every individual brick /j /j /j /j /j

[patent canopy]

lmao

[lost trench]

in order for development to speed up at all they'd need to be sure they can make, at the current rate, roughly 100,000 sales a year to pay the devs enough of a salary to quit their day jobs

that is a wild ballpark estimate so don't quote me on that

but it is like ten times the sales to break even

at least

they've sold, at most, 26,000 copies so far at the highest estimate on steamdb

(the lowest is half that)

[misty pasture]

I feel like it'd be kinda cool if there was just a thing where you can donate to the development of the game if you wanted and you got- like- a shirt and hat that say "I supported brickadia for 20$ and all they gave me was this shirt and hat"

[lost trench]

keep in mind that with steam's tax they only make $21 per sale

and that's not accounting for regional pricing

[patent canopy]

Oh yeah, forgot about that

[lost trench]

I'm certain if the game was $20 you'd have people complaining it's not $15 or $10

[misty pasture]

True

[lost trench]

because people expect to pay less than the price of a meal at a restaurant for indie games regardless of the work that goes into them

and this game has been in development for eight years

the devs have not been paid for that until now

[patent canopy]

I'm just sad about this graph

[lost trench]

it'll probably go up again when there's a major patch

400 players is still a lot

the absolute peak of blockland that I remember when you could very easily find populated servers was like, 400-600 players

[patent canopy]

I really hope so

[patent canopy]

Oh wow really?

[lost trench]

yea

the absolute highest it ever got on steam was like, 2,000 for the steam release

and then it immediately dropped down to 400 as it was before

[patent canopy]

I would have thought those LEGO like games would reach high numbers-

[lost trench]

and again, blockland cost $20 back then

which is $30 now adjusted for inflation

[patent canopy]

well now I'm less worried actually

[lost trench]

yeah I feel like brickadia can only really go up from here

if it's beating blockland with the absolute barest minimum feature set

[patent canopy]

yeah

[lost trench]

it will never dethrone roblox or minecraft and isn't aiming to

[void yew]

yeah no this game was never going to do gmod peak numbers

[lost trench]

but I hope it at least blows up enough for the devs to be comfortable working on it

[void yew]

being worried about steamcharts is understandable but you gotta reign in your expectations a bit

[patent canopy]

It has the same potential though — it's just the price tag

But I heard the Singleplayer experience is also great. So it probably doesn't need to be that much of a success. I'll buy the game later today

[void yew]

game hasn’t even been found by Influencers yet and peak gmod actually costed equivalent

[lost trench]

it's doing well by other metrics

[void yew]

Oh you haven’t bought the game that changes the entire conversation

[lost trench]

the majority of stuff to do is singleplayer at the moment honestly

the tools to make gamemodes aren't quite there yet (though they should be soon!)

it's really really really good and worth it if you like building

[patent canopy]

I actually watched like 4 or 5 videos about Brickadia yesterday and today. They all had a good amount of views

[void yew]

Right but it doesn’t have 2013 YouTube gmod murder/ttt numbers

[lost trench]

it must be remembered that gmod did not come out in 2013 either

[patent canopy]

right

[void yew]

I figured with the talk of potential you were a person who’d already bought the game which like, does change the convo

Don’t let people in here sell you on it if you don’t think it’s worth it for the price right now for the record or you’ll probably grow to resent it

You have to get it with the full understanding that it’s more an offer of support right now

It’s an Early Access Game in the truest sense

if you think you’re going to be playing this for the next two years as it improves then yeah it’s worth it

If you don’t then wait

[patent canopy]

I got sold by the videos on yt and think I'll be happy with just building for now, but thanks for the heads up :D

[void yew]

Then for sure it’s worth it id say to be honest if all you want to do is build by yourself

[lost trench]

if you're happy with building by itself you'll most definitely enjoy it

[void yew]

And also you don’t need to care about the player count if that’s all you want to do lol

[lost trench]

building is the most robust and feature complete part of the game currently

[patent canopy]

Watching those videos gave me a feeling that I couldn't find in many games for years

[lost trench]

it blows any other building game out of the water

[void yew]

could be better but yeah for sure

[patent canopy]

I also would like to enjoy build cities with a good amount of players 🫠

[lost trench]

there's several city builds going currently

[patent canopy]

yeah I know, but like, my worry is that the players are missing yk?
I really love a good roleplaying experience

[void yew]

Is the worry that your creations won’t see an audience and you’re not the type who can just enjoy creating to create ?

[patent canopy]

No no, I hate sharing my work haha

I just love the feeling of life in a game yk?

[lost trench]

roleplays aren't there yet, not for lack of features but because nobody's finished making a map yet

(partly lack of features though, local chat exists but there's no convenient way to do nicknames without changing your display name outside the server)

[ivory star]

$30 is a dealbreaker for a good chunk of people. You can definitely sway a lot more people with $25. Heed my warning when I say this, but you do NOT want people to describe Brickadia as a "wait for when it's on sale" game

[tight anchor]

Can i have the gam for free because im swagapino

[velvet zealot]

Another thing I've noticed is that people try to compare other games for less than 30 that have nothing to do with the premise of Brickadia

Games that might be linear, or games that literally have nothing what Brickadia offers in terms of variety, mechanics, etc

[waxen osprey]

garry's mod is ten dollars, no man's sky is sixty (currently twenty-four on sale)

[velvet zealot]

People did compare Brickadia to a lego gmod but it's not there yet

[waxen osprey]

ten is gmod's base price (1/3 of brickadia) and it's the most common comparison I see that isn't wack

minecraft is another, and minecraft lands squarely in the 30 dollar range as well

[lost trench]

minecraft is $30 right now

[waxen osprey]

right now I'd say it's worth for builders but not for "hop in" players, in the future it likely will be worth for the latter, that's the long and short of it

[lost trench]

yea

I don't think they'd gain anything from lowering the price; people would still buy it, see there's nothing for them to do yet, and drop it if they're not into what there currently is to do

[shrewd stump]

Like someone else said, it’s truly an early access game. Like you pay a decent chunk for it and you get to play it now instead of in a couple years when 1.0 is released. Its not gonna have long-term appeal in its current state beyond people that are really excited for it, and making it cheaper now because there are less features just means less full price purchases in the future when the game has way more

[velvet zealot]

It's funny, people say the game "isn't worth $30," but if the price were lowered and they still complained there's "nothing to do" or "nothing that's finished yet," then what's the point? You're paying for something that's clearly in early access and hasn't reached its full potential yet

I genuinely think people forgot why Early Access exists

And what's it's really meant to encourage along the way

[shrewd stump]

Yeah. I honestly think it would have to be like $10 or maybe $15 to have wider appeal with its current feature set and ensure people wouldn’t complain

[waxen osprey]

"ensure people wouldn't complain" is a really funny phrase

[lost trench]

and then the devs would have to sell 19500 (if $15) or 29000 (if $10) copies just to break even

and then you can basically forget about actually making enough to pay the devs a salary

people are really used to indie games being underpriced such that it's really hard to actually make enough to be an independent developer full time

[waxen osprey]

those other games might not be underpriced, they might just be lower production value

simpler game framework, or less optimized, or just straight-up less capable

they do less, and they're priced appropriately

[lost trench]

yeah but people don't look at that when complaining about price, they just see the indie game label

terraria is still $10

and it's been developed for 14 years

it can afford this because it's insanely popular, brickadia does not have that luxury

[austere harness]

yeah

i say its already good enough at being lego gmod

[waxen osprey]

it's close, but you can tell from visiting activity servers that it's not there just yet

I think the next month or two it should come into its own

[austere harness]

it'll be genuinely better than gmod once you can save multi brick grid things

[lost trench]

especially since it'll take people time just to make gamemodes even when we have the tools to do so

[waxen osprey]

I think the good trajectory is get gameplay tools out > let people cook for a few weeks to a month > launch some sort of big update with a 10% sale

[austere harness]

like by gmod i mean going to a public server and making a fucking doohickey and marvelling at all the other weird doohickeys

[lost trench]

six said that's something they're thinking about

[waxen osprey]

yee

[lost trench]

named update with a sale

[void yew]

i 100% think that people are going to get so crazy with making dumb physics stuff that hurts the engine to make work that opening public freebuilds is going to become a very difficult thing to convince people to do lol

[lost trench]

we'll need more moderation tools, which I think are priority #2 behind gameplay gates and prefabs

[void yew]

there WILL be extremely abusable wire/physics fucker prefabs that crash servers

[austere harness]

like i went to a public server and i found this mk ultra looking brain washing device with fucking speakers circling your head playing annoying sounds

if you made that in gmod every prop would dislocate and start overlapping with every other prop nearby

[hidden anvil]

I still don't get what the issue with 30$ is. It's a perfectly reasonable price even for the present content

[waxen osprey]

Buying power varies a lot

[void yew]

it’s because it’s expensive for an indie early access game and that breaks everyone’s brain

[shell gale]

thats pretty dismissive. the general consensus is that its a more than fair price for a very large and passionate subset of the community, but is currently lacking enough content for more casual players who arent so keen on creating things

i dont think the "if u lack the imagination to do stuff w legos then this game isnt for u" mindset is correct either. if this game is only focused on appealing to creators then getting more sales isnt going to be very easy

[shell estuary]

i think that's more of a commentary on how the industry has created a particular expectation people react to since people are so used to indie games being cheap and early access indie games being even cheaper

[shell gale]

i dont think the price needs to change, im confident the game will have plenty of content in the future to appeal to a broader audience

[shell estuary]

so it's kind of a kneejerk thing in a way

indie pricing is really rough and i've bought many an indie game that i feel i should've had to pay more for

i do on some level view $30 as something of a "payment of confidence", if only because the whole experience hasn't quite come together at the edges for me yet

but i believe pretty strongly it's going to

the only thing that's stopped me is that i can't spare a dollar on anything outside of my immediate needs right now

[hidden anvil]

It literally isn't more expensive compared to other indie titles. Sure it's unusual for an early access title to be at this price, but I assume the price will stay once the game's out.

[void yew]

I know, hence why i said indie early access not just indie

[brazen pecan]

but I assume the price will stay once the game's out.
nope

[hidden anvil]

I stand corrected

[ivory star]

1000+ messages in this thread alone should tell that $30 may be bit much for people

[austere harness]

counterpoint: they're broke

[velvet zealot]

^

Or they might need to borrow their mommy's credit card after getting her paycheck from home depot

[velvet zealot]

In all seriousness though I think 30 is pretty good to contribute to a game with massive potential

They've been developing for 8+ years

That's almost a decade and you expect them to not get compensation for their work?

Honestly I also think that the pricetag is there just to prevent hackers/modders from ruining people's games, like there's a threshold of people who are willing to contribute and pay or just genuinely want to have fun

I don't think spending 30 bucks just to purposely do something to get yourself banned is a good use of your time

And money

[pastel storm]

not really no lol

Though some people try to troll within 2 hours to get that refund

[velvet zealot]

What I mean is that it's not easily as accessible to those with literal free time on their hands

[pastel storm]

Ah- I was agreeing with you, my wording is bad

im cleaning out a freezer full of ice rn so im disteacted

[velvet zealot]

Oh lol, I just ate ice cream lol

[pastel storm]

nice!

i wish this ice was the ice cream kind

Anyway, I think this game isn't worth 30$ to a decent amount of people, with time it'll be worth it to more and more people as player projects and updates to the game happens

[velvet zealot]

I'm honestly a bit curious as to how much progress will be done within a year before this game gets taken out of EA, cause compared to Blockland, it really offers a lot of ideas

[pastel storm]

The devs work really hard and have set their game up with some good foundations so we'll probably see some decent progress

A sandbox game can really only go up as more tools get added, unless the devs fumble, which I doubt will happen. And if it does happen, they'll get feedback and change things

[velvet zealot]

Not that I consider it a major thing but even avatar customization has a lot of freedom into it

Actually now that I think about it, it's just as creative to work with along with building

I really wasn't expecting an customization so flexible compared to Blockland

[pastel storm]

Its really awesome

[waxen osprey]

it's as intricately engineered as everything else that's in :)

[noble mulch]

it’s been less than a month, jesus christ what are you talking about? sorry but that’s really just.

gahhhhh

[waxen osprey]

game hasn't alived enough to call it dead

[noble mulch]

literally!!!

[shrewd stump]

Lol even better it’s not even been 2 weeks. Barely even 10 days since EA dropped

Game ded

[noble mulch]

[shell estuary]

if it's not an instant smash success it's a failure

just like in hollywood

[gentle kettle]

the player number count is deceptive. every server currently has a max player limit of 30 players.. look at that player count again and divide it by 30..

a server with 30 players (such as mine) feels extremely alive and active and fun. try joining one of those servers! you'll find that, while playercount looks low, people stay in the game for a REALLY long time (im talking hours upon hours, sometimes even 8 hours or longer) and the populated servers feel alive

also i may be a bit biased i guess but as a creator i already got almost 300 hours out of brickadia, so for me that price was MORE than worth it, considering i tend to drop most AAA games after only a few days

[smoky geyser]

since we're talking about player counts; no man's sky instantly failed at launch, went from 100k players to <1,000 players for 2 years, then went back to over 10k players consistently with continuous free updates. (remember, NMS' initial launch was literally bare bone compared to the present day)

brickadia can do this too, I already noticed how much improvements between beta access and EA so I can say this will get better and better. And definitely get us many ppl playing it later on.

but that's just number and they only tell you how many ppl are playing in the game, so if you just ignore that count and play servers with many ppl in it, you will immediately felt how alive it is

same for those minecraft servers with under 100 players

[lost trench]

there's also players that don't necessarily have the game open all the time but will hop on if you tell them about a new server

[void yew]

also offline players

[velvet zealot]

call me farfetched or crazy but I also think it had to do with psychologically satisfying numbers

30 just seems like a comfortably neutral number if you think 40 is too expensive or 20 or 10 is too low for the quality that it's worth

[shell estuary]

"psychologically satisfying numbers" is unfortunately a real market pressure and it's exactly why you see price tags do shit like "29.99"

[velvet zealot]

George Carlin was a comedian that explained why "10" was the most psychologically satisfying number

Uses that as an example of why there's stuff like "Top 10 (blank)" or the ten commandmants, Ben 10, etc

[austere harness]

man 10 is overrated bs that shit has the same amount of factors as 14 for crying out loud yet we dont use a base 14 counting system

the only reason we like 10 more is that 5 is a smaller prime number and its the amount of fingers on our hands

[paper bane]

30$ was almost a dealbreaker for me because I thought I was just simply too stupid or too not creative to make full usage of the game's systems and features. I've actually bounced off of a couple of games for that, but after seeing the trailer and what was possible on top of how much fun it could be with the obvious boost of my love for Blockland (that I never got to play)... I took the plunge

and I'm so glad I did. This game isn't real, dude. If anything 30$ is a steal for the sheer quality of the product and how much fun and creativity it has brought into my life.

It has lowkey put an end to my creative burnout and making content about the game is a ton of fun.

It's the most optimised piece of software I think I've seen in my entire life. It runs like butter on and off camera, it's only 2GB to install, it has hardware raytracing in the form of Lumen, and I don't think I've ever dropped a single frame.

I log on to this game just about every day with some sort of new idea or inspiration and the game almost never just tells me "no". It lets my creativity run wild and it's up to myself to rein things in when it get crazy.

But yeah, rant over. Game's incredible and 30$ is extremely reasonable for how much enjoyment I've gotten out of it

[noble mulch]

it’s hard to convey these truths to the general public. we need some really high profile testimonials

i hope vinny plays it again

[waxen osprey]

they're more practical to encounter incidentally

[noble mulch]

？

[waxen osprey]

join the game, check out some cool builds and gamemodes, and then want to figure out making them yourself

the more there is to do before you have the little "wall" of getting acquainted with building, the more likely it is that the curious will become enthusiasts

spending time just farting around and becoming acquainted with the game's capabilities in the process

[noble mulch]

they have to join the game first

they’re not gonna do it if they just think it’s, despite the reality of its impressive capabilities, another poorly programmed early access game and roblox clone

thats why i think high profile good testimonials from big content creators and such would help explain the nuances

[waxen osprey]

splashy gamemodes make a better impression on streams/videos too

come for the "that looks neat", stay for the "dang I didn't know the half of it"

[noble mulch]

i’ve been saying

we need our own friendslop gamemode

[waxen osprey]

ehhhh

[noble mulch]

streamer bait bullshit is how you maintain people’s attention

whether you like it or not

[waxen osprey]

honestly something like a more systemically rich darkrp would slap

have actual jobs to go to where you physically do tasks

[noble mulch]

these days i don’t have the time or energy to dedicate to stuff like that

except conan’s farming

god i loved conan’s farming

[waxen osprey]

the one I had back in blockland had persistent money

you may not keep your items but you keep your farm

[lost trench]

you could make so many logistics games with how seamlessly you can load up a truck with stuff

[noble mulch]

see? we just need to make a REPO clone about truck loading

[feral cairn]

i think the issue is that most people don't want to build or make stuff and just want to play. which bricadia doesn't really support atmo. so yeah the price tag is pretty high atmo

[noble mulch]

it doesn’t?

i barely build anything

[glossy silo]

I think the price is fine, but a demo would be nice if plausible

maybe of just the tutorial area and a couple locked down minigame worlds

[noble mulch]

no silly brick limit though :p

[glossy silo]

would that really be so bad? the main purpose of a demo is just to show that the game works well and can deliver on its promises

(performance, features, polish)

for the performance aspect it would be good to have a decent world as part of a demo, that way you're not using an empty space as reference lol

[noble mulch]

blockland brick limit was a meme

[glossy silo]

ah

[noble mulch]

125 bricks is very silly

iirc

[shrewd stump]

It was 125? I thought it was 250
Not that 250 is much better lol

I feel like a limit of like 10k would be fine. I assume there would be other limits like no multiplayer or something

[noble mulch]

yeah 10k sounds reasonable if there has to be such limitations

[void yew]

it used to be 150

got raised at some point to 250

[feral cairn]

bro who are you even playing with then? the 3 guys that are on?

be fr

[noble mulch]

I'm guessing you don't play this game at all, Mr. Deus Vult

[feral cairn]

lmao

[noble mulch]

why exactly do you stalk the discord server of a game you don't play?

[feral cairn]

who told you i don't play?

[noble mulch]

your only response was lmao and some game stats mocking the current active players

what exactly was i supposed to assume?

[dull walrus]

it would be cool if a theoretical demo could allow simple multiplayer, maybe just joining friends only, no public servers?

biggest issue right now is lack of exposure

people need to experience how the game feels, including playing with other people because the social aspect is such a big part of it

[dull walrus]

and fuck it, I'll just be honest and admit that a demo is a bandaid solution that wouldn't be so necessary if the game was $15 instead of $30

[shrewd stump]

Yeah that’s very true. The social part is huge

[noble mulch]

you're right, honestly

maybe we should have more "free weekends" or something

[desert trail]

Respectfully, I disagree. The game's current feature set and available activities are far too niche to attract much more of a playerbase than they currently have. Now is not the time to overexpose it, most people will not give something a second look after they have dismissed it. The devs are doing the right thing by waiting to do another marketing push until they've released another content update

Also I don't really think the game needs to cost less, frankly(in the west, can't speak to prices in countries with average lower income). Given the vast quantity of resources that have already been sunk into it, I don't think $30 is some crazy asking price. It's mostly just asking people who are interested in the game as-is (so people who enjoy hanging in a chatroom with randos, building with legos, making circuits that don't do much but are technically impressive, or playing DMs) to pay something as an incentive for development to continue. It's in Early Access after all.

[noble mulch]

anxiety weh

[void yew]

i think that’s a good read. I know the people making this game probably don’t want it to be the next Roblox but the current featureset is simply too small for most people to care about right now unless you fit in the niches described

The fact the devs felt comfortable asking for money after we got whatever these brick vehicles are is pretty amazing imo lmao

They REALLY need to stop leaning on that in their advertising

I think it’ll do more harm than good if the game gets overexposed right now with current featureset. Let it be for sickos only right now and try to convince more people later when there’s more for them

[feral cairn]

my only response wasn't "lmao" or just "game stats" it was a reponse to your brainrot comment. atmo the game doesn't have many players beause of the price tag.right now the game is literally only for people that build or make stuff or just want to enjoy a sandbox with friends. people that don't have or do any of that have no reason to play the game at the moment

unless they do something about that the game prob won't take off ever

[noble mulch]

it was quite literally the word "lmao" and an image of game

like was I supposed to assume someone asking "what 3 people are you playing this game with" is someone who plays the game? logically, you'd know exactly who i was playing with if you did, right?

[feral cairn]

yeah i don't play the game at all

[noble mulch]

Ohhhhh. Makes sense

[feral cairn]

my first comment btw

[noble mulch]

Ok sweetie

[feral cairn]

[peak pumice]

I think the lack of marketing is purposeful due to the early access state of the game. I only found out about it literally 2 days before launch.

[waxen osprey]

There isn't a critical mass of features that would justify a full marketing push

[visual echo]

For example, in Russia, "Brickadia" costs 1,100 rubles, which is about $ 15. For such a game, 1100 is a normal price, but for factorio (1200 rubles) it is expensive.

[loud lava]

Very much agree with this. The price of the game is very fitting for where it’s at and where it’s heading. The game just isn’t that far along for it to be “worth” it for some people. Their perception of value and what they want out of the game just aren’t congruent with what the game currently is. Which, granted, kinda makes a little sense. Take for instance the trailers for the game. The majority of the maps in it aren’t really featured in the publicly available maps. We’ve gotten bits and pieces, but for the most part if a player wants to recreate the trailers then they’re gonna find a lot of trouble. The game in its current state is for those who’ll create, and that’s really it. The most I’ve seen from people who have issues with the price is that the game doesn’t have the features they want. Those features they’re after can be solved by player made content, but there isn’t enough out there right now. Not a lot of people have released that many “fun” gimmicky game mode maps, and I feel that’s really what a lot of the price complainers are after. Because simply put, they’re just not creative enough to make it themselves. This applies for both single player experiences and multiplayer experiences as well

But also to give some credence as well. Map making is also very difficult

[desert trail]

I don't really see much use in the "those players aren't creative enough" argument that keeps getting thrown around in here tbh. Some people play sandbox games to make stuff for others, others do it to engage with stuff that's been created. Judging/minimizing people for what they are or are not interested in doing in the game isn't going to improve the appeal of the game. They aren't leeches, they just have different interests.
The best way (in my opinion) to appeal to the people who want to engage with others' creations is to make creating more accessible and functional for those who want to create. If you want to explore cool but mostly static builds, then there are definitely a good few of those to be found in the gallery. If you want more involved experiences though there's not much for you to do, and that's not solely people being lazy/uncreative; it's because the feature set is still not large enough to support a lot of experiences that might otherwise be doable/not too tedious to be worth the effort of creating them in the first place. For the precious few who are able to muscle through all of that to create truly spectacular and feature-rich maps and gamemodes, it takes a very long time to do so presently, which at the moment is going to be a factor that keeps down the quantity of those kinds of creations.

[loud lava]

Like I said, it was put simply. More accurately it’s just as you said it is. It just takes a special type of person to be able to create stuff and for many who put off Brickadia they just don’t see the potential nor think they specifically can achieve it. Not to say they’re not capable of creating stuff they just don’t have the mentality to do so with brickadia specifically. But I’ve never mentioned that they’re lazy or incapable of doing it. They just don’t do it.

They’re just not creative enough for this specific application

[desert trail]

Apologies if that came off as an attack/accusation against you personally, it wasn't intended that way. You simply brought forward something that had been stated in far less charitable terms by others in this thread before and I felt I wanted to speak my mind on the matter.

[loud lava]

Oh you’re all good. I’ve never seen anyone say what I’ve said. So I don’t really have a reference for what you’re talking about.

But I agree with that too. Some people just play differently than most and this game is hyper niche. I’m surprised there’s a lot of people who found the game but aren’t the target audience.

[desert trail]

They've had some high profile streamers/etc play the game already during the next fest demo, and also the old Blockland crowd.

The BL crowd may be where at least some complaints are coming from. I'm personally desperate to get back the experience of what I used to do in that game back in the day, but wires aren't nearly as powerful as events yet and that was what I did with most of my time so for now I'm biding my time waiting for updates. lol

[waxen osprey]

yeah, that's really the crux of it. creators need better tools for consumers

[loud lava]

Never played Blockland tbh. So I’m not too sure on that front

[waxen osprey]

as someone who did play BL and used events to the point my map broke the event system, they were quite powerful when they worked

mainly due to addons

[noble mulch]

variable conditional events my beloved

[noble mulch]

was i one of those people

well if you don't know

it wasn't my intention

[desert trail]

for the record for anyone else who feels the need to self-report: that was not a callout post. I don't really remember who said what, and honestly I don't really care that much. The idea is what I disagreed with, I don't have a list, and if I did, you're not on it. I promise. lol

[feral cairn]

well that was the biggest issue with the demo. the games in the trailer were just no there. i was pretty excited for the medieval siege map but never saw it and stopped playing after less than an hour

and now that it's 30$ most people just can't justify the price for what they experienced

it's prob better better if they refine the map downloading part more and feature better maps and then make a demo for people to play so they price can be somewhat reasonable

[noble mulch]

i think they should integrate server joining functionality into the gallery

"these people are currently hosting this world!"

[glossy silo]

well yes, because that's what the game is

there are golf games charging $40+

it's to be expected that only people who like golf games will purchase such a title, and the same is true here

if anything, a sandbox game like this automatically has a far wider appeal than other kinds

on another note, while the amount of player-created content is definitely a consideration, I don't think it should impact price given it's just a factor of time

people who want to wait until there's more stuff to play can do just that

though I do think part of the problem stems with how locked down the minigame system is at the moment

even just changing the values of the damage gates would allow for more unique games

[noble mulch]

i should make a minigolf world

[cobalt pier]

something to consider

when you lower your prices sale go up but you make less

when your prices are higher your sales go down but you make more money

in the end it ends up being lower priced games make more than higher priced games

[noble mulch]

consider the fact that they're planning to release EA2 right before the autumn sale

[cobalt pier]

makes no difference

the point is the game is already out and exposed to public opinoins

[noble mulch]

What

So they shouldn't put it on sale?

would be pointless?

[cobalt pier]

people know about the game already and some have made conclusions

[noble mulch]

Ohh okay. No sale then. got it

[cobalt pier]

no im not saying that

im saying if the game would have started at a lower price to begin with the player base would be much larger

the point is not making it just a temporary sale but a permanant price drop

as most of the people willing to play the game at 30 already have

doing a sale is only a temporary solution to try and grab some more playesr

[fallow dust]

Another thing customers don't really consider because it's not their problem, and I think this was part of the case with silksong's price being so low too, is mass appeal offers you the opportunity to price your game low and still make a killing. Not all games get that opportunity, sometimes niche things have to be a bit more expense BECAUSE fewer of them will be bought in order to make ends meet. Pricing is tricky, and not as linear as some might choose to think

Just had that on my mind cause of silksong so I thought I'd add it

[tight anchor]

it was also worth noting that team cherry already released hollow knight, which means they were already an established developer and i don't need to overstate the hype and anticipation that existed for silksong. so the price they chose for it didn't really matter
-# also, personally, knowing that it was originally DLC for HK makes more sense to me as to why it'd be $20

[void yew]

this isn’t going to happen for actual years if it ever does

[cobalt pier]

that theology kills a lot of games

[noble mulch]

i do not think that word means what you think it means

[tight anchor]

[void yew]

LMAO

[waxen osprey]

wololo'ing the price to $20

[dull scroll]

the sentiment I'm seeing is that brickadia doesn't have the luxury of being cheap because of popularity (the example was terraria) and that its an early access game that's not at its full potential so theoretically no price would be 'worth it' or something like that

if the game isn't at its full potential why is it at its full price, and wouldn't it help popularity if it were more accessible pricewise

There's basically nothing in it for you if you aren't a builder, it's $30 to play deathmatch or walk around a freebuild server every month or so lmao

oh wow, that wire feature I'll never use sure is impressive!

and that's not even to shit on builders they do some impressive stuff and clearly get a lot out of the $30 they spent but why is it 'fuck everyone else'

as of right now this game is basically a fancy art tool with the price tag of a game

if you make things you're in heaven with all these systems and things you can do but if you're anyone else you are spending $30 to spectate.

[pastel storm]

They're actively adding to the game to make it better, and when the tools broaden, so does the playing field for games/minigames that people who don't like to build can participate in.

The way that the game works relies on people interfacing with the creative tools, or seeing what people have made with those tools. It does suck right now, but it'll get better with time. Not much to do but wait patiently until the game is at a point you'll consider it worth your money.

There is that sale coming up, the autumn sale I think it is? Might be a good chance for people to get the game at a discount, I'm not sure on the specifics rn tho

[dull scroll]

yeah that's the best kind of early access

the "wait and see"

[pastel storm]

lol

[dull scroll]

full price for an unfinished game, what is this a AAA company?

[pastel storm]

Well no, because it doesn't cost 60 dollars or more :P

seeing some of those nintendo games and switch 2 prices, eugh

The gaming "landscape" has changed and become so odd nowadays

[shrewd stump]

Not even full priced

They will likely raise it when it’s fully out of EA

[dull scroll]

anyway I just don't think the "wait until its worth it" model is very smart if you're trying to build an audience

[shrewd stump]

But if you price it cheaper, a bunch of people buy it and complain there’s nothing to do for $20 and then drop it and don’t come back

Is that better?

They’re not going to be able to build an audience without adding more features anyway

*consistent audience

[dull scroll]

yeah it's better to make it expensive so nobody plays it all instead!

[shrewd stump]

$30 is not expensive

[dull scroll]

for an unfinished indie game it absolutely is lmao

[shrewd stump]

Like I see it as paying for early access to play and support a game I’m excited about that’s not feature complete yet. It doesn’t have a wide audience with its current feature set. That’s fine? They don’t have to price it cheaper just because it’s done

[shrewd stump]

They don’t buy it? That’s fine

Like what’s a fair price at its current feature set? $10? They would have to sell 3x the copies to break even
They’ve already broken even at $30 with what they’ve invested (from what we can tell via steam db etc). That seems fine

Pricing it cheaper and having a bunch of people buy it because it’s maybe fun and then complain and review it poorly because it doesn’t have enough features for a $xx game seems silly

[dull scroll]

if you're arguing that people would complain it doesn't have enough features for an early access game at $20 I think having it be even more invites the same issue but worse

[shrewd stump]

Then why drop it lol

The people who are going to buy it at $30 want to buy it at that price with a limited feature set

As it gains more features and more features for game mode creation it will have a wider audience

Like I don’t really think it has the feature set of a game worth more than like $10 for most people

But the amount of engine work they’ve done commands a higher price imo. But that isn’t going to matter to most people. They need features to stick around for longer

[dull scroll]

and if you're saying this I really don't think you understand the value of a dollar

[shrewd stump]

$30 for something I’m going to play for literally hundreds of hours and also get updates for free is pretty damn cheap. Movie tickets are like $20 for 2 hours of entertainment

$30 also lets them do a sale to $20 and have it look like a good deal. Instead of $20 to $15

[dull scroll]

yeah but that value for one person means nothing if you’re trying to build an audience

lmao

[shrewd stump]

You said it yourself that there’s barely anything to do besides deathmatch or walk around a freebuild once a month

How tf would a cheaper game help that

Like the value is there for people that value the current state of the game. Making it cheaper won’t add more features any faster

[dull scroll]

I’m not arguing it will but you could buy any other similar sandbox game 3 times and they’re actually finished

what justifies buying this for $30 over gmod or even blockland for $10 each? the idea that it could eventually have more?

it’s like getting an I.O.U.

[shrewd stump]

Isn’t that LITERALLY what EA is lol

[covert geyser]

Gmod and blockland are past their active development. If you want those games instead, get those games. The game's been well worth $30 for many players already, me included, you don't have to buy it right now if you don't feel $30 is worth what's there. Just wait for it to go on sale, or wait for more features.

[shrewd stump]

You’re buying it at its current state. It’s always a promise of more updates but you never know

I would much rather play brickadia 3 times than play Blockland at this point lol

[dull scroll]

you guys keep saying the same things and they aren’t making any more sense than the last 8 times lmao

[covert geyser]

I think there might be something you're missing then

[shrewd stump]

If Blockland or gmod are 3x better experiences than brickadia then people should buy those

[dull scroll]

well for one gmod has modding capability at $10, something you're still waiting for with a $30 game lmao

[shrewd stump]

Okay?

[covert geyser]

gmod had entirely different circumstances around its development, as it was a mod itself, and was made almost two decades ago

[shrewd stump]

I guess I don’t understand what the point is for arguing the game should be cheaper
Like getting more active users? More money?

[dull scroll]

you're acting like I think it should be $5 or something too lmao

[shrewd stump]

No like what’s your point lol

Because I 100% agree that at $30 with the current feature set it doesn’t appeal to a lot of people

But what’s the goal of arguing for a cheaper price

[dull scroll]

by that logic what's the goal of arguing it should remain $30 when even you agree it's a dealbreaker for most people

glazing?

wtf

[jaunty topaz]

as far as i understand the game's price was chosen partially so that they can cover the amount of their own money that they've already invested into the game so development can continue at a faster pace
frankly i think the prices for a lot of other indie games aren't enough considering the amount of time and money they put into their own games

[shrewd stump]

Because they think the end product is worth $30 and don’t want to shortchange themselves by selling it for cheap because they’ve put X amount of time and Y amount of money into it and they had an idea of how many people would be interested in buying it

[dull scroll]

you're arguing that at $20 people would have similar complaints to the same ones they're having now but they'd also drop it and leave bad reviews but its the same thing except they aren't buying at at all

nonsense

[shrewd stump]

Bad reviews can absolutely kill a game lol

[dull scroll]

more than people not playing it at all???

holy hell

[shrewd stump]

Yes if it’s being actively developed lol

The game is not dying just because it doesn’t have an upward player trend

[jaunty topaz]

considering it's a multiplayer indie the fact its maintained a consistent playerbase at all is pretty good

[dull scroll]

because screw the people we actually want to PLY these games

hair brained statement

[shrewd stump]

Wat

They need to fund themselves and such lol. They can’t just price it cheap because people can’t afford it at the higher price but want to play?

[dull scroll]

I don't think its impossible to fund yourself and not have ridiculous pricing

[jaunty topaz]

... it's just $30 man
if you don't want to spend $30, you don't have to, but at the same time i don't think the sky is falling because the game is priced at ~4 hours of federal minimum wage

[shrewd stump]

I still don’t understand what your point is for WHY the game should be cheaper

[shrewd stump]

How is $30 ridiculous
What price should it be? Please tell us

[covert geyser]

$30 is not ridiculous

[shrewd stump]

Like take a look at any of the shit they’ve done with unreal and tell me $30 is absurd with a straight face

[jaunty topaz]

they had to surgically remove physx support from unreal engine 4, update it to the latest version of physx, and then surgically attach it to unreal engine 5 because UE5's built in physics engine is simply not good enough

likely several hundred hours of work went into that aspect alone

[shrewd stump]

Yeah

[dull scroll]

I think between $20 - $25 is perfectly reasonable even when considering what they've actually done

[shrewd stump]

This is what I’m getting from this: “the game doesn’t have enough features if you aren’t into building”
And I don’t understand how making it cheaper would change that at all

[dull scroll]

it doesn't matter if you code SKYnet with a potato and a calculator monitor if it isn't finished why would anyone who hasn't been here from the start buy it at this price??

[jaunty topaz]

because they like building

[shrewd stump]

This game has also been in development for like 8 years now with basically just building features. They wanted to do a paid EA because they realized it’s hell to just do development without any revenue and give people an opportunity to support it while they update it

[jaunty topaz]

because they want to make games for people who don't like building

[shrewd stump]

People that don’t like building at $30 may like bots and gamemodes at $30 a year from now

So then they buy it in a year

[covert geyser]

In economics, you can price things lower and lower to get more market reach, but past a certain point it does absolutely nothing besides make it harder to earn anything off what you're selling.

the devs decided $30 is a reasonable price they're comfortable starting the game at

[dull scroll]

whatever guys

lmao

this isn't worth the effort

[shrewd stump]

I’m still a bit confused why you want it to be lower

Like more players? More publicity? Just so you can buy it now instead of waiting for a sale?

[dull scroll]

a bit of all of those yeah

am I supposed to be ashamed that I want this game I've supported for at least 5 years to be seen by more people and be accessible to them? that I want to actively support them at a reasonable price?

[shrewd stump]

No

I think of it as more of a “let’s transition from free EA to paid EA while we work on more features” period that we’re in right now

Cuz like we got wires and vehicles/grids, but we still need tons of more wires stuff and microchips and bots and gamemode improvements and prefabs v2 () and other stuff to make it desirable by more people

But realistically it still feels similar to pre-payed EA just with more people who can actually play it now that it’s not just a closed alpha access game

It feels like it would be difficult to even reach out to more people at whatever price because the amount of effort it takes to do cool gamemodes like TTT or other stuff is still super high. And it needs to come down and be more accessible.
And when it does that the $30 price point won’t feel high

[dull scroll]

I don't have money to throw around like it's nothing. Maybe you do, but I don't.

more for less is how you lose money

(more money for less product I mean)

[dull scroll]

there are many people that don’t

[cobalt pier]

especially in todays economy

[shrewd stump]

Yeah that’s valid. That’s why sales will be good

But there are enough people that will drop $30 on it that they can price it normally at $30 and drop it when they do major updates to try and get more people in-game

[dull scroll]

idk man maybe I'm just cheap

[cobalt pier]

no, i do agree, 30 is quite a bit for the vast majority, especially with the current content in the game

[boreal tree]

-# me who paid $15 for Brickadia due to regional pricing making it very cheap in my country lmao

[cloud raven]

Can you buy for me and I give you $15?

[boreal tree]

i think there's region restrictions for steam gifting

[proud veldt]

may I remind you that you don't have to buy a game in Early Access if it doesn't appeal to you (and I recommend you don't buy it then, until it's fully released, which you can then decide if it's the type of game for you or not)

[rich pulsar]

TLDR: I can't find Brickadia's focal point and it's leaving me very confused and torn apart.

I feel like Brickadia is in an awkward position currently. I can't tell what the developers want with it. I personally am totally ok with a $30 pricetag on it, because I genuinely really enjoy making things and Brickadia's well made tools and systems make that really satisfying. But I don't know a single other player who sees the value I see.

Like, how can I be expected to spend the vast amount of time it usually takes to design a game thats fun and interesting in it when I can't even get my intended audience to pay out the exorbitant entrance fee just to gain access to it? With PICO-8, I can so easily export my games and share them effortlessly without having to spend hours of my life convincing people to buy PICO-8 to play them. The barrier of entry is immensely low for my audience. Maybe thats a moot comparison, but isn't Brickadia trying primarily to be a game maker tool too? I mean, its not like there's an intended game the devs here want their potential audience to latch onto like what Minecraft has with its Survival mode.

If I'm being frank on the subject of Brickadia's gamemodes like TDM or Racing, from what I've gleaned so far there are a vast number of fun standalone games that provide a more focused, more in-depth, MUCH cheaper experience. The only caveat in that regard seems to be freebuild. I'm not surprised that freebuild is the most popular type of gamemode in Brickadia, its the only one that interfaces with what the software does best.

I'm not trying to be negative, because I really like Brickadia. I'm just genuinely lost on what exactly it wants to specifically provide besides incredibly robust but closed off authorship tools and systems tailored around LEGO.

[noble mulch]

kinda like if LittleBigPlanet didn't have a story mode

[dull walrus]

it's a creative game, not a creative tool

ideally it should be fun to pop in occasionally and just mess around a bit

It's like the real thing. When I was a kid playing with legos, I didn't have a big plan or a goal or an audience, I was just having fun with my toys.

I have strong biases but that's what I hope Brickadia is trying to emulate

[boreal tree]

but isn't Brickadia trying primarily to be a game maker tool too?
not really, it's not going to be something like Roblox and its Experiences that you can make with a separate studio software

Brickadia is a sandbox game that does give you tools to make different gamemodes in-game without the use of external studio software, but the core of it is that it's a sandbox game

I'm not surprised that freebuild is the most popular type of gamemode in Brickadia, its the only one that interfaces with what the software does best.
I do agree on this bit, as of this moment it is really hard to make any other gamemodes outside of freebuilds because we are currently lacking a lot of in-game features in order to do interesting stuff. TDMs are plain boring right now because there's no way to make gamemodes like point capture or capture the flag, or point domination. Racing is also plain because there's no in-game timer, position leaderboard, or lap counter.

theoretically speaking, Brickadia's full release is that it would allow you to create these worlds in the game just only using gameplay gates, wires, gamemode settings, and a bit of luau scripting and you would be able to share these worlds to other players and/or host a game with the world

[loud lava]

CTF and KotH are possible right now. I’ve already developed a CTF system, and I’ve improved it since I showed it here. KotH is technically possible although I haven’t thrown any prototypes together, but you can make it in theory. Racing with laps is also possible and I even have a prototype almost ready to be showed off, but there’s no way to make HUD elements.

I’ve been meaning to share the blueprint files, but been busy with other projects and developing other stuff.

[rich pulsar]

Maybe I'm off base, but I am under the impression that what defines a game is pretty specified and direct; win/lose conditions, a core fundamental gameplay loop, some type of challenge. I don't know if this is always the case, but what I'm fairly confident about is that these defining features set apart random doodling from pictionary. Players feel challenged, they fail, but then they get rewarded in some way for good behavior, and this is typically deliberate design-wise. Its psychologic-based conundrum, game design; a really delicate balancing act. I'm not saying Brickadia isn't tangential with what could be a game, nor do I want to restrict creatives or box them in. But what I am saying that the only times I personally ever consider Brickadia an actual game is when I'm the one setting those broad game rules, or somebody else has done that for me. And I enjoy that process, it feels like my own little game to me, but most people I know don't. I don't want to lie to my friends by calling Brickadia a game when I know full well if I convinced them to buy it on that premise, they would boot into a couple staff picks, a few servers, and then promptly block me on all platforms afterwards. This is what I mean when I say I'm torn on it. People keep calling it a game but I can't ever see any intentions by the devs of making one. They want me to do that instead. I mean, I'll do it. I'm a sick SOB. I paid $10 for Krita. I'm just sad that, unlike Krita, I'll never get to share what I make with anyone else I know.

[rich pulsar]

I completely agree with everything you say, minus the game emphasis.

[lost trench]

I'm not going to get too deep into it but "what defines a video game" is actually a pretty open-ended question

what is the win condition of tetris?

[rich pulsar]

what is the lose condition of tetris?

[lost trench]

tetris does have a pretty defined lose condition: if the blocks reach the top of the screen

otherwise, it keeps going and you accumulate score until you lose

it's hard to set defined bounds on "what is a video game" or even "what is a game" such that everything you would define as a game is categorized as a game and everything you wouldn't define as a game isn't

you can make a definition, sure, but there will always be edge cases and outliers and lots of them are things that we unquestionably label as games

does poker have a defined win condition that ends the game?

does second life have win or lose conditions?

so, accordingly, I think working backwards from a definition to prescribe what you think a game should be is not a very useful exercise

[rich pulsar]

ok

[lost trench]

to give another example: for years there was no "win condition" in minecraft

even now that it does, it doesn't really end the game and moreso serves as an optional overarching goal to give you some direction

likewise, you can't really lose minecraft outside of hardcore mode

[rich pulsar]

punishment is negative. I touch my hand to the hot stove and i say "ouchie!" did i not lose for a second there?

i learned not to do that ever again, i know that

[lost trench]

but overall if your main concern is that your friends might not like the game, then I'd just be honest with them what it is and isn't so they can buy it (or not buy it) on its own merits

maybe wait for a sale

[rich pulsar]

yea, thats what i've been doing up to this point. not a lot of interest so far but im doing my part

[lost trench]

you can build things and share screenshots or videos

[neat thorn]

This is how i think of it,

Blockland's has if not more than this game right now and is 10 dollars,

Minecraft at the start of its life cycle was $10 which is $15.10 USD in this market and was made in an engine [Java] way harder to code in 3d tools in early 2000s to 2010s "while also having decent content and yearly content all by one person (notch)".

I know its not easy and is more or less a hobby but your in a good spot to create something that is not just something extraordinary but is new era of UGC that we lost in through early 2000, rip LBP.

If Blocklands had Functioning coop and a in house workshop that allowed working sdk the game might have had more of a following, if not a major following,

-Regardless, This game is doing what blocklands and roblox/minecraft couldnt do combined,
and 30 dollars is a lot even today, even if it was 25 dollars I would say that's enough but regardless this game is suffering from lack of content and (in it current state, i think a price change would allow a {temporary} fluctuation even putting it on sale for a slim minute would hit people once the word gets out.

[limber parrot]

what in the goddamn is this formatting, are you trying to make your readers stroke out or something?

you can press shift + enter to get a line break on discord

[austere summit]

this is what we see, this is really awkward to read and looks broken

[limber parrot]

whoops, sorry haha

[neat thorn]

Fixed

[austere summit]

almost, good enough!

[gentle kettle]

im just gonna drop this in here too

[noble mulch]

I haven't been playing for a while, I'm burnt out, but I am interested in coming back when I'm inspired and/or have something to play with my friends

also college is a thing

[neat thorn]

Destruction will bring this game back…

Honestly we need something similar roblox’s anchor system.

[gentle kettle]

https://discord.com/channels/341536616759820298/1421487213455081522

[neat thorn]

Yes, but were talking about player scaling from accounting the revenue compared to new daily player counts.

Outside resurgence in current numbers via the player base, if we looked at recession in terms of percentage, team fortress has a very high recession simply because it’s political and humor nature also it’s free.

I will note that ya, its not about the number…

just accessibility for some,

paying 30 is a-lot like i said, I’m over exaggerating when I say… people will sell films that costed them 20mil dollars and sold the copy for 19mil-990 less

“$10 USD, but i will also account the development cycle ;

$30 is a good price just not an accessible price.

[neat thorn]

👍 thats a good acknowledgment

[austere summit]

you can freeze physics grids, right click with the manipulator tool!

So many players make use of it to make builds with rotated objects, such as brick walls with some displaced bricks, or frozen props with variety of rotations

[frozen walrus]

make game one dollar

[neat thorn]

No your think of like anchoring block stuff no im talking about the anchor system where you shoot rockets and it makes your builds pieces fly arounds

But like idk how u guys plan on doing it

Roblox is awesome just wish they kept studs or at least made some stuff offline..

Multiplayer only sucks

[austere summit]

I dont know what you mean but thats not a Roblox engine feature

[austere summit]

studs still exist, they just aren't forced and havent been for many many years.
also its been multiplayer only for most of its existence

in terms of a single player mode for games tho, roblox probably could allow developers to enable an option for that, but it would still be a multiplayer server with a max of 1 player

[waxen osprey]

behold, twenty dolla

[neat thorn]

Thank goodness

[lethal zodiac]

the answer that doctor posted like 20 days ago is pretty muc hthe right answer i would say

[neat thorn]

No they removed studs, yes technically you can still have..studs.. meaning there more accessible but the stud system is gone, it has 100% been replaced since i went and tested the lua script out and almost most of the scripts are now something you have to code into the game and arent accessible through the in game studio ui, any method that was used a long time ago has been removed entirely, forcing people to use scripts to create an active lua anchor that responds to weapons, that also Roblox removed because its a platform now, not a game about legos anymore.

The only thing that is lego oriented is the charatures creator and its also been changed.

Due to the changes i mentioned most old games on the platform were destroyed as the result, making half the games needing to be republished or worse a remake, however that only implies to games that don’t use lua custom scripts “old roblox assets”

[austere summit]

I'd argue it hasn't been a lego or brick-based game for a long time, probably most of its history at this point

[neat thorn]

It was,

just that people didnt look much into it since alot of people left after shedletsky left mainly after 2017

I know it’s likely not that much of a big deal its just sucks that from what i played to what is it now just Isn’t what i experienced since theres no way unless u use retro studio

[tired surge]

hey devs,

lower the price

[shrewd stump]

They can’t. Steam doesn’t let you

[tired surge]

yes they can

I guess steam has regulations and rules about that

But I'm sure it will be possible eventually

[shrewd stump]

Yeah I don’t know if they can perma drop it eventually or just put it on sale almost all the time

Also still highly skeptical that a cheaper price would do much because there’s still so many features the game needs. And every $10 it drops they need to sell 50% more copies to make up the difference

[hazy sparrow]

I don't mind the price ngl atleast they aren't being Nintendo with 90 dollar games..... Or any other big console company's games being around 50-90 dollars

I do want them to make a donation place to continue supporting them

[noble mulch]

i dont understand why people keep bringing up donations or patreons

just buy more copies of the game

if you want to shell out

idk

is the point that the dono would be a sum less than the full game price

[void yew]

i think people are just desperate to feel like theyre supporting the game in some way and feel like if they do itll lead to a situation where the devs prioritise it more over their day jobs. which is delusional but still

[violet shadow]

sale soon

[foggy willow]

fire

[waxen osprey]

sale forever

[copper hazel]

Family Guy clapping gif

[heady tiger]

$20 USD sounds reasonable I say

[heady tiger]

and give them to friends and family

and it will boost the sales figures

like no need for patreons if we get to buy as many copies

I feel like most people are pulled away by the looks of this LEGO game with the $30 price tag

Given Minecraft is like $7-30 bucks and Roblox is F2P with Robux MTX

Though I am not most people as I thought $20-30 is well justified for this game.

[neat pawn]

Ok so do the early supporters get a bonus at all like c'mon man

[frozen walrus]

the bonus is that you'll finally be able to play with people

[shrewd stump]

The bonus is we got to play for the past 6 months

[tired surge]

LMAO

[boreal tree]

brickadia is now 10$ for me due to regional pricing, even cheaper than when i paid for it at 15$

another win for the 🇵🇭 brickadia players

[tired surge]

hell yeah

it's 20$ in the EU

I love it, we had so many discussions about lowering the price, way before release, and even after release...

And they only lowered the price now lmao, meanwhile, the moderators often deleted instantly any discussion about the price, nonsense

And you couldn't hold any civil arguments, because the most active people are literally eat up everything, and always had the same opinions as the devs and mods

[noble mulch]

who atted me

oh

[cobalt pier]

There should be no more complaining about price now

[gentle kettle]

sure hope so...

and i hope the ones who complained about price will buy it now that they got their cheaper price

[heady tiger]

like why do we need things or bonuses to validate our own values?

[noble mulch]

i have to wonder what the tipping point was

[elder vortex]

Curious. Devs mentioned the purchase graph; I wonder if this recent change had any measurable effect.

May be too early to tell, I would imagine.

[violet shadow]

No

[elder vortex]

Aw boo. I was hoping my suspicious were wrong.

[gentle kettle]

heres hoping itll happen in the next sale.... thats when peoples attention tends to be on buying new games

[velvet zealot]

Isn’t this game gonna be out of early access this year?

Correct me if I’m wrong

[cobalt pier]

Its gonna be out of early acsess when its out of early acsess, i don't think anything is set in stone

[shrewd stump]

I doubt it lol

[elder vortex]

Honestly here's hoping that y'all just raise the price back up before EA ends since the complainers didn't put their money where their mouth was.

[velvet zealot]

¯_(ツ)_/¯

[waxen osprey]

There hasn't been a blockbuster update yet

Until there is, it'll be hard to get a definitive picture