Age of Decadence - Preorders Open
 

You can now pre-order The Age of Decadence through BMT Micro for $25. The actual process is a little bit convoluted because there isn't a finished product, so make sure you read this post at the Iron Tower forums in full. In short, paying $25 now helps fund the development, with the actual game anticipated in 2013. BMT will send you links to the game - which are placeholders - and you'll be able to download when the game is ready:
Head over for additional donations and other details.
More information.

Well, I threw in.

I did too but this will, sadly, just add to a growing backlog of games I'll only be playing when I manage to not have a large backlog of dev tasks which could be… Possibly never :(

not paying a dime until this is released. too much smoke, mirrors, pointless updates about changing core concepts and mechanics.

I think preorders will be slow even if the beta was really interesting a lot of people are probably in doubt as to how long it will be until release….

I just have too many games going on atm to properly justify another. Especially one at least a full year out.


-Carn

I play mages, AOD has no magic, so I guess I miss out. I do hope the game succeeds and that Vince tries his hand at high fantasy someday. Still, I'd guess the soonest I might play an Iron Tower game is 2016 or later….

Fine, though I think communication has been pretty straightforward, not exactly smoke and mirrors. As a long time follower and beta tester I myself am obviously not neutral, but I would not have considered myself cheated paying $10 for what we got as a free demo, so I don't mind giving them my preorder money. But then I have been invested in this project for a long time. And I don't mind waiting (big backlog is getting bigger….).

I'll throw.in after payday Friday. I hope a bold game like this one receives the support it needs. I'd certainly like to see more devs taking chances and making something out of the ordinary, like Iron Tower has done.

+1

I know I will be buying this game at some point, might as well give them the money now. Then in 18 months (or whenever) I can play for "free".

I loved the Beta, but I'm a little concerned about how long they're taking to finish this game. I'll definitely pre-order when the release date is closer.

Not asking for your money, but for the record:

1) No smoke and mirrors here. We were always straightforward when it comes to features and expectations, and delivered exactly what we promised years ago.

Furthermore, we released 2 demos before asking to pre-order, thus showing you exactly what you're paying for.

2) We are not changing the core concepts and mechanics. If you referring to this update:
http://www.irontowerstudio.com/forum…ic,2576.0.html
.. then all changes are aimed to improve the core not change it.

He says they are a year away from release.

Now that's a pre-order.

Well, not that big of a stretch nowadays when people are paying for games that haven't started development yet. :) It's good to be generous and support the hard-working devs!

Not that I'm supporting kickstarters, but I'd support Vince before those guys. Vince has a product.

I'm in.

But if Grim Dawn & Dead State get a kickstarter thing going that'll be 5 games I've "bought" recently that there is no guarantee they'll be finished. Obviously I think they will be finished (and good) or I wouldn't be giving them my money.

I tend to have a favourable bias towards independent games such as AOD. However, I am disappointed with this particular game. It feels too much like a stat/min-max game. It seems you basically have two options: You play all-dialogue with few battles, with missions that are resolved around the fact that you put enough point in the various social skills. Or you play all combat and put every skill points you get your hands on in the combat skills. And you better put your point in the «right» combat skills or you will have your ass kicked faster than you can imagine.

The game has very little exploration. It’s very straightforward. In fact, it often feels more like a combat simulator than a real game. Walking around with the poor camera system is a chore. Of course, you don’t do it often because dialogues often teleport you around.

The lore, the background is interesting. Even the combat mechanisms are pretty cool themselves even if unbalanced. They just took some very questionable design decisions. I read a lot on the forums of the game to try understanding these decisions. The only explanation I found is that they want to cater to masochist players who don’t mind and even enjoy reloading countless time.

I vastly prefer the Kickstarter model to a simple pre-order like this, at least when it comes to debut indie games.

The advantage of Kickstarter is that if my money is taken, then I can be assured that a minimum amount of money has been raised, which the developer feels will allow them to finish the game on a set time schedule. With a simple pre-order, I feel like my money goes into a black pit, and it may or may not help the development schedule.

The indie scene is filled with broken release promises and disappointed pre-order customers, so I tend to stay away from paying money until there's a finished product. Kickstarter is the first thing to come along that's broken through that resistance, at least for me.

Here's hoping their development is successful (and that they fix that camera…really surprised that wasn't addressed at all in the update a while back).

Indeed. It felt more like math homework than a game to me. Like there was a lot of care and attention taken to remove every bit of fun out of it.

I still hope I will change my mind, a year is plenty of time, but for the time being preordering is out of the question.

It is funny how opinions differ so drastically. It boggles my mind how people can tolerate games that have endless, easy, filler combat. To me, those games feel like a great amount of effort went into taking all the fun out. AoD feels like a game which put all the attention into just the fun parts. Walking from A to B isn’t fun. Finding endless amounts of barrels and chests filled with a few coins, gear, health potions, and other nonsense as some sort of fun exploration is about as much fun as pulling weeds out of my lawn for five hours. Endless, repetitive, and mind-numbingly boring exploration and combat is appealing to me as a weekend vacation to a hotel where I get to type, “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy,” over and over and over again.

I like challenging combat. I like not wasting the little play time I get walking from A to B. I like games that are only filled with meaningful content without repetitive filler. I like this because I am the exact opposite of a masochist.