Omega Syndrome - Switched Off

Originally Posted by Dhruin
The indie project Omega Syndrome has been removed from sale, with the author pulling the plug and moving on:

After four years of updating and selling The Omega Syndrome online, I have finally decided to take it off sale and shut the site down. While this game was never profitable by any measure, it was fun working on it for the first few years. However over the last year I have found my motivation to work on it and subsidise it has flagged and recently it has dropped off altogether.

While I may be back with a new site and game in the future (I was never happy with the name of this one), I don't know if I will have the high motivation that is required to make another computer RPG. Why? Fan expectations are high, the potential audience is small and fractured and the amount of work that is required to create even a low quality computer RPG, far exceeds that of any other type of game. So in short I no longer believe they can be successful financially or otherwise, unless they are properly funded and have the very best people working in each area.

As a final word I want to send out a big thank you to all of the people that bought the game and gave me a lot of encouragement over the years.

Does this have anything to say about the indie RPG market?
More information.

I just wanted to let everyone know that David Moffatt has decided to stop further development and sale of The Omega Syndrome.

It's kinda sad when an indie developer with really good ideas has to stop making games… so I thought I would pass on the info to the Watch…

I really enjoyed his game… we should all think more about supporting the indies by buying their games (when they are at least decent and fun to play), so that more of them won't disappear… and so that more of them will be willing to consider creating the games we love.

Read David's statement HERE.

I hope this doesn't mean I'll never get a chance to try the game out. (I haven't been able to buy it since I don't own a credit card, but it was on my "possible buys" list.)

Übereil

Originally Posted by Ubereil
I hope this doesn't mean I'll never get a chance to try the game out. (I haven't been able to buy it since I don't own a credit card, but it was on my "possible buys" list.)

Übereil

From my experience with correspondence with David I would say that if you contact him he will make sure you get the game if you want it…

That's too bad. This is definitely front page stuff.

I'm surprised he says he's going to stop sales on it. Who wouldn't take cash?

Originally Posted by Lucky Day
That's too bad. This is definitely front page stuff.

I'm surprised he says he's going to stop sales on it. Who wouldn't take cash?

I assume he plans to kill the site and just doesn't want the hassle of dealing with it.

I can easily understand him. Spending 4-5 years making a game, basically being a one man operation, can easily get anyone down. However, I don't understand why he doesn't still continue to sell the game…

Well, I sort of do:

He then needs to be able to give support to the people who buy the game, and this could be more of hassle than we know…

Originally Posted by aries100
Well, I sort of do:

He then needs to be able to give support to the people who buy the game, and this could be more of hassle than we know…

I think that may very well be the case… He was the type of person who fixes things right now… he never waited (which is nice to see in a developer). I personally found several bugs, and every time I emailed the issue to him he had it fixed within 1 day.

His integrity as a developer was such that it dictated him doing the best job possible for his customers… and this can be a curse… especially if you're not getting rich from it, and you have to maintain a "real" job and family life.

So I could see him just wanting to drop it completely. That way he doesn't have to feel as if he has to help his customers if they find a problem.

At the same time I know that he had ideas for a new (very unique) RPG… so who knows… we may get lucky and he may come back to development after some time off…

email him and buy his game… that may help him to think about staying in the biz

I posted something over at GameSanityBlog about this.

Is he going to give this game away for free at least ? I mean - what's the sense in building a game without others letting play it ?

Or maybe he might continue selling it at a later point …

Saw it myself before I saw this thread. Interesting…I can completely understand wanting to move on after 4 years but there seems to an underlying…disappointment?

Sadly, I don't recall seeing anything about this game.

I never even heard of this game until it was on rpgwatch a little while ago about the new patch. I have been using the internet (and earlier bbs) extensively for most of my life and know mosat of the indie rpg projects but I guess he didn't get the word spread enough.

I am always hearing about Spiderwebs games and it seems like they are atleast semi-successful so I think he just needs to advertise better and try getting to the top or bottom of the major search engines. Also he could try getting on the sponsered list of the major search engines.

Originally Posted by Dhruin
Saw it myself before I saw this thread. Interesting…I can completely understand wanting to move on after 4 years but there seems to an underlying…disappointment?

There's a little discussion on the topic here.

I know David as a resilient and energetic person, I'm hoping this won't keep him down and he'll suddenly pop up with another RPG in a while.

I was looking at his site just the other week game looks interesting.

It's a pity, I really liked the demo. He has a great deal of talent and ability as a game developer.

Originally Posted by Brother None
There's a little discussion on the topic here.

I know David as a resilient and energetic person, I'm hoping this won't keep him down and he'll suddenly pop up with another RPG in a while.

I just read that thread and I had to post… since there may not be many who read it I wanted to put my post here… All you RPGWatch regulars know my feelings on this game, but I feel strongly about it so just ignore the following if you don't wanna hear it (NOTE: the original topic of that thread is discussing whether demo's are a good way to market a game):

I'm not sure if anyone is still reading this thread… but I'm going to chime in here…

I'm 40 years old… I've played tabletop RPGs since 1979 and I've played computer RPGs since they have existed. I have literally played hundreds of computer RPGs… you could call me a very hardcore CRPG player.

I have NEVER downloaded and played a demo for a CRPG… the reason… the same one that David mentioned…

If I play a demo of a CRPG it completely ruins the experience for me. A lot of demos you get are just a sample of the game… many don't even start at the same place where the actual game does. I want the experience that I have with a CRPG to be from start to finish… so how do I decide what to buy and play… very simple… word of mouth…

What is word of mouth? It's reviews from print game mags… it's reviews from web sites… it's the recommendations of people I trust (friends both online and off). That's how I found this game originally.

And I REALLY enjoyed this game. I'm sure that it has partly to do with my age… but I don't need the super cool l33t grafix, or the neato physics, or the ear deafening surround sound when I play a CRPG… I'm not going to lie… those things are nice. But if the game sucks it's not because of the graphics, sound or any other superfluous reason… it's because the company that made it created a boring, poorly written game.

David is a one man show… and the game he wrote by himself is a major accomplishment… and if you're able to take off your "grafix goggles" you will have a blast with the game. You have to be willing to play longer than a couple of hours to get into the meat… but if you haven't truly played it then you don't know what you're missing.

The money I spent on Omega Syndrome (which was way less than paying for a AAA game) was money well spent.

So to stay on topic (a bit anyway), I think demos are a terrible thing as well… for CRPGs. I don't mind them for shooters and the like… that's a completely different beast.

my 3.5 cents.

Sorrow is SuAside? An awful lot of complaining about graphics in that thread.

Longer response later and I'm sorry to kick a dev when he is down but AusGameDev never made any attempt I am aware of to contact RPGDot or RPGWatch. I'm disappointed we obviously overlooked it for quite a while (although I did cover it in the old Indie Roundup a couple of times). This is something that frustrates the crap out of me - I know being a dev doesn't automatically mean you know (or care) about marketing but that's what you've got to do to be successful. And for frick's sake - take advantage of sites like this! Feed us news, updates, whatever - it's coverage for nothing.

The same thing has happened with other titles; it might be cool to hook up with the RPG Codex forums (or wherever) and hang out with the tough guys of the CRPG scene but a lot of other potential customers are going to miss it altogether.

Originally Posted by Dhruin
Sorrow is SuAside? An awful lot of complaining about graphics in that thread.

Longer response later and I'm sorry to kick a dev when he is down but AusGameDev never made any attempt I am aware of to contact RPGDot or RPGWatch. I'm disappointed we obviously overlooked it for quite a while (although I did cover it in the old Indie Roundup a couple of times). This is something that frustrates the crap out of me - I know being a dev doesn't automatically mean you know (or care) about marketing but that's what you've got to do to be successful. And for frick's sake - take advantage of sites like this! Feed us news, updates, whatever - it's coverage for nothing.

The same thing has happened with other titles; it might be cool to hook up with the RPG Codex forums (or wherever) and hang out with the tough guys of the CRPG scene but a lot of other potential customers are going to miss it altogether.

I agree with you completely on that point. This site (and others) would have been a great place to easily get info out about his product… I'm not sure why he never pursued it…

Sorrow is SuAside?

No it isn't.

Originally Posted by Briosafreak
No it isn't.

Yeah, just a mix-up by me, when I typed SuA I meant Sorrow.

And I agree with Dhruin. Including on his sneaky point about AoD.