Hero-U - Permanent Price Change

Silver

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A new update for Hero-U and an announcement of a permanent price change for all stores.

New Year, New Plans...

Posted by Corey Cole (Creator)


New Features!




Since launch, we've continued to improve Hero-U: Rogue to Redemption with content and combat improvements, bug fixes, and other new features. The latest "Patch 4" makes the Wraith Sorcerer combat more challenging and fixes some problems with Katie's quests and the Aeolus romance options.

We've also made a much-requested change to movement speed. While the standard walk, run, and sneak speed are designed to work best with the movement animation, some players prefer to be able to move faster through the hallways. The Options screen now has a Movement Speed slider that lets you customize character movement speed.

There's a detailed update on the patch over at the Hero-U news blog. Keep an eye on that page, because more updates are coming soon! We're already working on a Patch 5 that fixes some combat display and audio issues along with some incorrectly-displayed text messages. That will be a minor patch, likely coming next week.

Game Price Change

Last July, we launched Hero-U: Rogue to Redemption with little fanfare and not much of a marketing plan. I priced the game at $35 - unusually high for an indie game - for several reasons:


  • Give our Kickstarter backers at the basic level the best possible deal
  • Position Hero-U as a premium game like Quest for Glory
  • Break-even on expenses with fewer sales
In contrast, a $15 or $20 price point:


  • Matches other "premium indie games."
  • Encourages impulse buys
  • Keeps player expectations reasonable
  • "Primes the pump" with early sales
I took a position, made a guess, and got it wrong.

Take Two

In hindsight, the arguments for the lower price should have been more compelling, and we've had very slow sales so far. Part of this is simply that the game market is extremely tough right now. Thousands of new games are released every month. We are also competing against heavily-discounted classic games, including our own. Players have tough decisions to make, and visibility is hard.

Today we are starting over. Rogue to Redemption is now $19.99 on all stores - Steam, GoG, the Mac App Store, and our web site. We are also preparing to launch on Fireflower Games in Europe.

There's more! We've decided to include the Bestiary ebook as free DLC for all purchasers. For Kickstarter backers, I've added the Bestiary to all accounts that got the game.

We are also going to make the interactive hint book free on the Hero-U website.

If you have friends who were hesitant about trying Hero-U at the original price, please suggest that they take a fresh look at the game.

400ce85cb743d1e369fa312b99843eee_original.jpg
A Page From the Bestiary
More information.
 
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Alright then, time to move this from my wishlist to my library. I was actually waiting more for the movement speed option than the price drop, but guess I got both.
 
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Honestly, this game is easily worth thirty bucks or even more, considering what you get. I'd no idea of the price point since I was a backer, but the release price seems totally in line with comparable games. But now, if you've not played this glorious game, all the excuses are gone!!!
 
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Honestly, this game is easily worth thirty bucks or even more, considering what you get. I'd no idea of the price point since I was a backer, but the release price seems totally in line with comparable games. But now, if you've not played this glorious game, all the excuses are gone!!!
Could you elaborate what you like about this game? I never played the original games, so I have very little information what makes this special (I assume it is similar to the old games).

Unfortunately I've never seen let's plays I like, so I tend to avoid them so as to not destroy my first impression of possibly good games.
 
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I liked many things about this product! It started with a seamless installation, with not a single crash or inherent problem from start to finish. The exploration is extensive, you could simply rush to complete each task/goal, but you're well rewarded for exploring deeper and off the beaten path. Now this I don't know for certain, but based on how the relationships are formed and managed with your fellow schoolmates, I think there are many options, depending on who you side with along the way. The combat system is quite simplistic, and yet the more you play the more you'll see just how rich it is.

And never did I have to touch my controller, not even once! Worked just fine for me with mouse and keyboard. This is a game I will likely replay many times over in the future.
 
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Well, original games, meaning Quest for Glory games were basically traditional Sierra adventure games spiced-up with initial class choice (fighter,thif,wizard), basic RPG elements and possibility to solve many puzzles in several ways (often, but not always, based on class choice). Its really cool, I liked it very much and Im big fan of all 5 games in the series (although fifth is not nearly as good as per my opinion). I even replayed 1-4 in last 2 years and have to say they are worth it even today.

Unfortunately Im still unsure how much this game (Hero-U) takes from original QfG games design. I think developers themself were initially unsure what game they actually want to make and later changes and new features were poorly communicated. Its probably main reason why I didnt back this project and why I didnt yet even try it.
 
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This was a good decision from Corey and they created a really nice game. I especially loved the tameable / befriendable monsters - all the amazing KAWAI features. I loved the pets in Dungeon Siege I-II., you could feed them magic items and they GREW!! So I'm making super-cute pets for our fantasy RPG too. :)
 
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I liked many things about this product! It started with a seamless installation, with not a single crash or inherent problem from start to finish. The exploration is extensive, you could simply rush to complete each task/goal, but you're well rewarded for exploring deeper and off the beaten path. Now this I don't know for certain, but based on how the relationships are formed and managed with your fellow schoolmates, I think there are many options, depending on who you side with along the way. The combat system is quite simplistic, and yet the more you play the more you'll see just how rich it is.

And never did I have to touch my controller, not even once! Worked just fine for me with mouse and keyboard. This is a game I will likely replay many times over in the future.
Thanks! The relationship to school mates sounds neat. Do you find the rpg elements deep enough?
 
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Thanks! The relationship to school mates sounds neat. Do you find the rpg elements deep enough?

There is plenty of choice and consequence and the skills you level up are needed to progress past some challenges. It depends on what challenges you wish to get past. You could skip combat entirely if you wanted to.
 
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As Silver stated, the game is simply replete with choices and consequences, both for good and ill. Although I wouldn't skip the combat, as I found their system to be quite involved and enjoyable.
 
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Please note that I reviewed this game here at the Watch a few months ago, so check that out for more detailed information. At $20, this game is now a steal!!
 
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I sent this along as feedback to them when I got the most recent kick starter update, that the price cut is a great gesture but that they might want to consider doing a few translations as well. Maybe not twenty different languages, but three to four just like they did in some of the earlier quest games, that would certainly get lots more people onboard with this game.
 
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I sent this along as feedback to them when I got the most recent kick starter update, that the price cut is a great gesture but that they might want to consider doing a few translations as well. Maybe not twenty different languages, but three to four just like they did in some of the earlier quest games, that would certainly get lots more people onboard with this game.
That would be cool. I'm Swedish, but my wife's German which means my kids speak German as well. If they translated it to German, I'd buy it just to play with my 8 (soon 9) year old.

In a few years she will likely know enough English, but in the mean time I try to find games in German (or Swedish but that's veeery rare to find :) ).
 
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