any rpg by AW!!!

[lenrodman]

hey, how about making an RPG over here at AW? those generally sell very well, and the market could use one with AW\'s sophistication and graphics!

[Howard]

hey, how about making an RPG over here at AW? those generally sell very well, and the market could use one with AW\'s sophistication and graphics!

Oh, we are intending to write several RPG games! However, the statement that they generally sell very well isn\'t so accurate! RPG games probably pay back the lowest value per hour to create of any style of game!

We\'ll still do some, though, because we want to :)

Howard.

[WauloK]

I did a survey on my website and the highest votes for preferred games on Palm\'s was RPG and strategy. :)

[Howard]

I did a survey on my website and the highest votes for preferred games on Palm\'s was RPG and strategy. :)

Absolutely no disrespect intended here - but would you say that members of a bulletin board, Palm users group, or any other internet community are entirely reflective of \"normal\" people ?
I\'d say (gross generalisation) that such people tend to be
(*) Far more computer literate than the average person
(*) Have a greater interest in the \'nerdy\' subjects of fantasy, RPG, computers, and Star Trek.
(*) Are more willing to devote a longer time to learn a game with a complex interface than average

Now, I would fall in the same category, as do most computer game programmers! However... I do have quite some experience in what games sell well, and which ones not so well. (Unlike most people, I actually have numbers for a lot of products, rather than guesses :) )

While the electroliterati may be baying for more RPGs and Strategy games, the great majority of people want 5 minute simple games for the Palm. This is why (especially after the success of Bejeweled) there are so many puzzle games now available (a fair share of them by Astraware!).

As a businessman, I have to look at (for example)
(*) 3 man-months to write a good puzzle game, which may sell (over 1 year) 1000 copies at $15
versus
(*) 12 man-months to write a good RPG which may sell 750 copies at $24.95

Add to that the complexity of wanting to also cover other genres - action, platform, etc.

Again, haing said all that, we WILL be writing some RPG games of various styles, and also some strategy games. The reason for this is that it is great fun working on types of games we also enjoy playing. Our latest recruit, Jan, is a big RPG fan and she\'s pushing for us to do some in this style :)

Howard.

[WauloK]

Yah. Just thought it might be interesting to post.
:)

I don\'t play enough games for very long myself so I can\'t comment ;) hehe

I get more fun out of creating websites, perl, C, css, etc than actually playing games.

Once I learn GCC enough I hope to create some of my own games. That\'s a ways off yet. Gotta work out how to get prc-tools to install properly on FreeBSD yet hehe

[WauloK]

That said, taking into account the overwhelming popularity of Bejeweled! I probably would try to make a game like that one myself lol.