ATOM RPG: Trudograd - Quick Look by Mortismal Gaming

Releasing so close to Pathfinder and Solasta isn't the best strategy for a game that seeks a very similar audience. Those folks have spent their rubles already this month.

I wouldn't discount the setting as a factor. Pathfinder and Solasta are high fantasy, and fans of post-apoc usually grab most everything that fits the genre since there are fewer games in it.

Trudograd is probably competing with Encased more than those other games.
 
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I wouldn't discount the setting as a factor. Pathfinder and Solasta are high fantasy, and fans of post-apoc usually grab most everything that fits the genre since there are fewer games in it.

Trudograd is probably competing with Encased more than those other games.

Still, there are a lot of Rpg fans who will grab whatever is a good rpg, no matter the setting. So yes, I think rpgnut's point is valid. I don't know why they all decided to pick september. Perhaps they bet that now that summer is over, people are going to pay more attention to new games being released? Perhaps because they wanted to have all their crew back and some of them had decided to take some well deserved vacations during the summer? *shrug*
 
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Still, there are a lot of Rpg fans who will grab whatever is a good rpg, no matter the setting. So yes, I think rpgnut's point is valid. I don't know why they all decided to pick september. Perhaps they bet that now that summer is over, people are going to pay more attention to new games being released? Perhaps because they wanted to have all their crew back and some of them had decided to take some well deserved vacations during the summer? *shrug*

I didn't say his point isn't valid, but most fans of post-apoc aren't skipping Trudograd at $11 because of a few other RPGs being available at the same time.
 
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Normally I'd be interested in games like these. But when I remember trying the base game for a few hours and watch the videos now, I just don't feel like playing in this grey, colorless, and somehow depressing ambiance.
 
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Normally I'd be interested in games like these. But when I remember trying the base game for a few hours and watch the videos now, I just don't feel like playing in this grey, colorless, and somehow depressing ambiance.

Each his own, I guess. I thought that its grittiness and "realism" was part of its charm and really liked it.
 
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Those playing this game don't care.

I not only don't care, I don't think it matters, ever.

New games in every genre now appear in a never-ending tsunami. If you can't get your project to stand out, you're doomed, and whether or not your release overlaps with someone else's doesn't matter much.
 
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I not only don't care, I don't think it matters, ever.

New games in every genre now appear in a never-ending tsunami. If you can't get your project to stand out, you're doomed, and whether or not your release overlaps with someone else's doesn't matter much.

I agree. It would show very little personality to delay your release because some other RPG is releasing within a couple weeks. It's basically admitting that this other developer is better than you and you're fishing for a "drought window" where buying a game that's not good enough might be acceptable to some players. If you don't respect your own product, it's hard to imagine your audience will.

The way I see it, either your game is good enough to stand out and earn its audience, or it's not. For me personally the release date is never a factor on whether I purchase a game or not, only decides whether I play it sooner or later, assuming it's worth my money!
 
That's what the movie industry does all the time.

It's not about "showing personality". It's about deciding when it's the best time for a game to be released. You may have the best game in its category. If for some reasons, because the release window is too crowded for example, your game doesn't get a good media coverage, it's possible that a lot of potential players who would like your game aren't even aware it exists. And in the end, if the game doesn't sell well, it reduces your chance to produce a sequel, and even risks your company survival.

It's marketing 101. The game/film industry is full of product that enjoyed a cult success from fans, but have been total failure, money-wise.
 
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Alright, but the movie industry is another league, it moves billions of dollars, and they get only one chance to be at the theaters, for a very limited amount of time, so they have to maximise every chance. That has nothing to do with games that are celebrating having sold 250,000 copies, and will remain in Steam forever.

Apples to oranges.
 
I didn't say his point isn't valid, but most fans of post-apoc aren't skipping Trudograd at $11 because of a few other RPGs being available at the same time.

Yeah, $11 is really cheap for a game that seems to add a ton of content. I know I will buy it eventually myself, even though I grew bored of ATOM by the time I hit the first major city. I played it like mad though for several hours.

I still think the timing could have been better, but it's very true that post-apoc lovers probably don't care about Solasta/Pathfinder and may not have bought those yet, if ever.
 
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Alright, but the movie industry is another league, it moves billions of dollars, and they get only one chance to be at the theaters, for a very limited amount of time, so they have to maximise every chance. That has nothing to do with games that are celebrating having sold 250,000 copies, and will remain in Steam forever.

Apples to oranges.

Not at all. You do have some small budget films that contend with the same problems a 250,000 copies game does. You have juggernaut such as Skyrim that cost over 100 millions dollars to produce. Marketing budget alone was 15 millions. First week they sold for 450 M$. Smaller companies can't compete with that. If you want to maximize the exposure your game get, you will certainly pick a release date that doesn't conflict with such games.
 
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Enjoyed ATOM and pre-ordered this ages ago. It's very much like the original Fallouts and I loved them. My only problem is as well as Pathfinder, I also have Beyond Mankind and Gamedec sitting there waiting for me!! :)
 
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Enjoyed ATOM and pre-ordered this ages ago. It's very much like the original Fallouts and I loved them. My only problem is as well as Pathfinder, I also have Beyond Mankind and Gamedec sitting there waiting for me!! :)

Let me save you some time. Go ahead and refund Beyond Mankind. :)
 
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Not at all. You do have some small budget films that contend with the same problems a 250,000 copies game does. You have juggernaut such as Skyrim that cost over 100 millions dollars to produce. Marketing budget alone was 15 millions. First week they sold for 450 M$. Smaller companies can't compete with that. If you want to maximize the exposure your game get, you will certainly pick a release date that doesn't conflict with such games.

Now I would understand someone planning their launch to not be at the same time as Skyrim. But you're talking about Pathfinder and Encased here.

Of course, you are in a niche RPG site where Pathfinder or Encased may seem like a big deal to you. Fact, to those in the industry it isn't.

And to reiterate, because it's the biggest factor in the analogy, movies need their window on theaters and they need to choose that very carefully. Releasing a movie is a tremendous hype event where the whole world gets to discover the experience together. Games sit on Steam infinitely regardless of when they are released. More than that, these days most games are "pre-released" for months or years in "Early Access" (like Pathfinder or Encased). There is no discovery here, by the time these games were released, everyone knew all about them, there were full character build guides, companion guides, romance guides etc published. The day the game chooses to become "1.0" is pretty much an anecdote. There is no "limited blaze of glory". You just release your game and hope that you did a good job and you will find a niche audience. You don't compete with other titles in time, as movies do, the competition is mostly quality-based.

And well, Trudograd costs £10. That alone means anyone can get it for a lunch's price, so I doubt anyone having spent their rubles this month would be a detrimental factor. If it was, they can pick it next month. Beats sitting in limbo with the devs twiddling fingers without feeding their families because some other random RPG released recently.
 
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Yep and thanks to mobile apps and games.
Are you sure?
According to these numbers PC and Console gaming alone are bigger than "Box office" and "music" combined. However I guess move industry is bigger than box office alone as movies are sold on DVD and via streaming services which generate additional revenue on top of box office.
But this chart is from 2019 and as the article states that video games massively grew in comparison to movies.
So it's not so clear imho and video games (without phones) could already be bigger than movies.
I couldn't find better numbers with a quick search. Do you have other sources?

Also "mobile apps" (that are not games) are excluded here, as far as I understood.
 
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Yeah, I think that regarding the release, companies like Owlcat Games, Dark Crystal Games and AtomTeam are more concerned about keeping the budget under control than the relative impact of the release date on the immediate income from sales. The first two may also have constraints from their publishers.

Besides, there are many indie releases and it's quite volatile, picking a date in a calm period is not really possible with such a poor visibility.

It's probably more a concern for big companies that are marketing-driven, and for which the sales are so high that those relative differences have a big impact. There aren't so many AAA releases either and they're advertised well in advance - they have a good visibility.
 
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There has been a massive amount of releases in the last week, so, without being an expert on the field, I imagine there are benefits to it for smaller studios. I wouldn't presume I know more than them about the right timing to release their products.
 
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