Tracking mobile

Allow me to elaborate my perception on the whole 22cans deal. "Seeing is believing."
At this point we've been told so many random promises so often, with half of them backfiring, being "in progress" or being outright denied or nullified by subsequent decisions made by Peter that we (rightfully so, if you ask me) have a hard time believing any such intent coming from 22cans.

The plan to "eventually" get around to doing something about the PC platform is a rather empty promise, considering none of us can look into the future.
"The road to hell is paved in good intentions." - or so they say. While it is entirely possible that you and your colleagues have every intent not to abandon the PC platform for mobile, the reality is that the PC platform has been thoroughly screwed at this point and the odds of a big enough comeback aren't very likely. (It just isn't a sound business decision to put significant time, effort and funds towards this goal...)

To follow through on the spirit of the original pitch, you'd require a *complete* overhaul of the games design to come even close to reaching that point, any and all concepts relating to F2P/mobile design would need to be ripped out and replaced by proper features. The game would need to get a thorough scrubbing and get proper choices implemented rather than the linear path that is available now.
Even if by some miracle you'd end up "adding" content thats substantial right now, the core game is so utterly dull and meaningless that that by itself would ruin the experience for most PC players. (And yes, I choose to seperate PC players and casual players for the sake of argument, the 'correct' description would be "most core PC players" or something along that line...)


When I say you've abandoned the PC, I mean to say that you have little to no intention to deliver the PC title as it was originally described. A game in the spirit of Black & White or Populous, the concept that convinced most of us to back Godus in the first place.
While I can believe that 22cans intends to release a slightly tweaked version of Godus mobile on PC, with some minor changes to (graphical) options, and the addition of a few keybinds (which reminds me, these are some things that could really easily be added to improve functionality on PC yet have been neglected all this time...) - but ultimately it'd still be a F2P mobile game at heart.

And while this works from a business sense. Hell there might even be some degree of a market for it as there are plenty of casual players on PC.
It would not be the game that we once were sold on. To that extend, you'd still have "abandoned" the PC platform, or at the very least those original backers and supporters, in favor of selling out to a vastly different target audience.
I have no problems with developers making casual games, some people like different games and there's a market for that. Pure supply and demand states that if there is a demand/market, then its only logical that someone will take up on that business opportunity.
What I DO have a problem with is that this entire project was originally pitched under entirely different pretenses - and feel free to call me on holding this grudge, but ultimately THAT is the game I paid for.

Not some cheap iOS knockoff, not some 'zen-like' & 'delicious' game of groundskeeping. But a proper godgame, with relevant choices and with the freedom to do things as I desire.
A world that would function on its own but would react to my intervention and a toolset that would allow me to interfere with that world on a meaningful level.


As much as the "intent" might be there to not abandon the PC platform. I don't see that ever happening.
The reality is that people like me and the game that I'd thought Godus would become have no place within the wider scope of 22cans plans for Godus.
The question that remains there is if the purposefull deception (and yes, I do believe that this is the case) towards these players. To describe a game in the spirit of such old titles only to turn around and claim "But I never said that I'd make the game like that!, I just said I'd take concepts from it and place them in a modern light!". Whether that could be interpreted as malicious.

And frankly, yes... I do believe that that IS malicious. Don't get me wrong, from an amoral business perspective its a genius move, gather momentum and publicity based on past fame.
Then use that momentum to further the project and company towards a much larger potential audience and a vastly different kind of market that otherwise would never have funded you in the first place. Then turn around and say you never intended to make the game like people interpreted in the first place. To play off of a vague enough descriptor that you can get away with fullfilling it on the barest of technical requirements and then simply continue on your merry way to develop a game in such a way that its entirely catering to the much larger casual market that relies on monetary micro-transactions.


Do I blame the 22cans staff for this? Not really, I highly doubt you guys have the slightest say in this. Peter has made clear on multiple occassions that he sails by his own agenda.
That his apparent hatred or atleast dislike towards the nature of PC gamers. The strife that exists on the platform, the heavily competative nature and the uninevitable conflict that crops up when you put so many vastly different people together with the ability to all directly communicate together.
Combined with the perceived mistreatment or bullying by that very audience regarding Peter's previous titles - the fallout he's gotten over him for features that were once promised but never delivered even though the games themselves turned out pretty good.
The stain on his reputation that he could never lose. After all, his reputation as someone who overpromises already exists so its not like he can damage that any further?
That all of that is something he has some very strong negative feelings about.



So do I believe that 22cans will "abandon" the PC platform entirely? No... You wouldn't.
Because that would force you to refund to the very people that Peter feels have mistreated him for all this time.
Instead, releasing the iOS version on PC slightly modified would both prevent the necessity of such refunds aswell as draw in minor additional funds from the casual players on the PC platform. The target audience that "doesn't look at such media sources anyway", but instead just wants to sit at their computer and play a game for a short time each day.

Do I believe that Godus will ever even ever so slightly approach the game that we originally chose to back however?
No... I don't believe that. To achieve that, pretty much everything that is currently in the game would either have to go or be drastically changed.
And from a business perspective that would be completely ridiculous. You'd have to overhaul half a year of work *again* to achieve that.

I still think this view is rooted too much in assumed knowledge and insight into how 22cans is running.

-It assumes they're strapped for cash.
-It assumes this is due to poor sales from Steam.
-It assumes there are poor sales from Steam.
-It assumes the sales are being negatively impacted by the gaming press' response to the game.
-It assumes that there are a significant number of those following the game's press reception.
-It assumes that 22cans doesn't have any investors and all money to operate is being accrued from Steam sales and, now, the iOS version's microtransactions.
-It assumes that since 22cans may not have any investors, Steam sales may be poor, and the iOS version's microtransactions' profits may quickly shore up, that they cannot look into expanding the team to better support the iOS version's maintenance (both in terms of fixing bugs and content production) as well as continue the PC version's development.

Now, with all these assumptions in place your conclusion is well supported, but it's supported by information we have practically no verification or indication of. You can say that if things were better they'd just come out and say it, but there are a variety of reasons as to why they wouldn't.

-The business operations of 22cans, while of concern to us as buyers and backers, are not necessarily of any great importance compared to the delivery of information regarding the game's status and development.
-There are agreements in place or opportunities that may be put at risk by disclosing too much of how the business operates, which is to say, if they go around telling everything about their agreements then those who would prefer to keep their associations/agreements private may avoid working with them.
-There is no direct obligation on the part of 22cans to disclose any information regarding its financial situation to us in any great detail, except to assure us vaguely that things are okay.
-It is actually the norm for gaming companies to withhold information regarding their financial situation until development must be halted due to the exhausting of all funds and all possible means to acquire more funding to continue and complete development.
-They must proceed through a number of approval hurdles and sign offs before any information may be presented to us, leading to this particular area of information falling into a low priority category as per my first point.

Most of it is based off of observation and past experiences. 22cans has told us for well over a year how they plan to do all these things. And they have yet to deliver.
While it is an entirely valid option to hope for the best, I think its safe to say that doing so blindly at this point would be utterly naive...
Perhaps should they deliver on some of these promises towards the PC players that they intend to fullfill their promises in spirit rather than to the letter, we might have reason to be somewhat lenient.
The reality however is that they haven't, infact they've done the very opposite by calling us out through interviews and by focusing entirely on the mobile release.


While the mobile release is a smart move from a business perspective - that does not remove the fact that they consistently 'promise' that they'll return focus to the PC platform.
Sure, we don't have definitive proof that Godus isn't doing really well other than what we can find on iOS statistics and from public review - yet where there is smoke, there's usually fire.
Its safe to assume that Godus isn't a massive financial success, and we know for a fact that 22cans isn't a studio that has the manpower to dedicate full-time to both development paths.
We *know* that the current iOS release is lacking in content, and any knowledge on the platform shows that retention is key to success there. If you can't retain your players you're going to sink into the abyss.

Putting these puzzle pieces together, even if it doesn't give us any 100% assurances. Does paint a pretty obvious picture as to where the priorities for 22cans would lie.
Combine that with Peter's own admission that the promised "PC sprint" is going to be a short one (only a few months at most) and that picture only ends up being confirmed.


While there are a multitude of options available. Like Peter Molyneux having a pot of gold hidden under his desk, Jack secretly having a rich grandfather backing the company or other outer sources of income.
So again, while the focus on the mobile game in and of itself isn't so much the problem - the constant insisting that they will focus on the PC platform when they consistently do not IS a problem.
And while the reasoning for this insistance can also be put to various causes (perhaps they truely want to do it but are prevented from doing so, perhaps its just a ruse to prevent the need to be forced to refunds or any of the various other options), it does remain that 22cans keeps making promises they do not keep.

With all the information that consists of speculation, that part is fact. 22cans has created a reputation of not doing as they say they will. Or at the very least, not doing so in the way we perceive their promises.

I've come to take a "seeing is believing" stance when it comes to 22cans' promises.
They say a lot - a lot of which they don't really bother to follow up on.


A direct result of this however is that anything that 22cans says is just empty words.
I'd prefer to see them back these words up with results more frequently. =)
It'd make it easier to believe their intentions and plans for the future.

I agree I hate stickers. I also do not like how the time line is right now. I like the concept but hate that I can only advanced in their plan. I wish the cards were stacked below and I could unlock the ones I wanted in the order I wanted and then they get moved up to the time line.

The longer this project runs, the less likely things are going to be finished.  The reasons always come down to money.  We've discussed reasons for monetization and they always come back to "keeping this project afloat."  A good portion of this comes back to the fact that PM kicked off the discussion with his talk about "invest to play" and as long as he continues to talk about f2p and profitability, this line of discussion is going to keep happening.  Jack's presentation didn't help matters and only adds fuel to the fire.  Since we're given no real numbers, the best thing we can do is to speculate based upon the evidence we can gather.  

Even without knowing specifics, there are a few things we know about the future:  

• The pc version isn't going to be a source of income in 2 years the way it has been for the last two
  
  
• There are no additional products being developed that will come out for at least 5 years
• Mobile has the potential to retain profitability as long as it continues to add content

Any small company that plans to remain operational needs money to pay the bills and employee salaries. We know that 22Cans is living off of previous earnings, outside investors, and Godus income. For them to tread water, their Godus income has to be coming in at a rate to match the Kickstarter amount every 8 months. That's just a baseline from what we have been told from 22Cans itself.  Tack on additional expenses for servers and the number goes up from there.  Add a few new employees and it rises again.  

So, when PM promises that Godus will be developed for the next 2 years and we're looking at how much time and effort it's going to take for them to finish this project, the only way to critically assess his proclamation is to look at the feasibility that 22Cans will be around long enough to do it.  As it stands, the numbers only add up to around a 50/50 chance that they'll be around for more than a few months after official release date.  

The problem with the balance tool is that it's not some brand new thing.  The QA team has been using a similar tool already and has said as much when this was first being discussed.  So, the biggest mystery is why it's taking so long for them to cobble something together when it should just be a simple matter of sprucing up a (likely) rough tool for public usage.  There must be some non-technical reason they can't hand out the QA tool to the public right now.  My guess is that they're realizing just how fast people will identify just how little content there is if they don't have all the roadblocks to fight with.  

Yeah... considering all of the iOS games I've played that rely heavily on multiplayer to keep you playing, I would wager that they are having some serious problems with the hubworld.

Every day that they choose not to release it, it's costing them money on mobile.

Bulk release is what puts you on the "best new updates" list on App Store.

Here's what I "know" the programmers are working on: fixing the mobile bugs.

I say bugs but they are actually ginormous gaping in your face sort of issues. The biggest three are that you cannot log in, the game frequently crashes, and the game erases progress (varies from the last few hours to complete reversion). These are disasterous for a mobile game. These problems are also the sort of problem (especially full game reversion) that Apple has consistently offered refunds for. So unless they get a fix out they will see a daily refund number steadily climb which in turn will stall new releases as Apple checks them more carefully... well you see the cycle. Basically if they do not head that off its going to strip out "already earned" income as well as shut off the revenue stream in multiple ways.

So that's what the programmers are working on.

Jack and Peter are wringing their hands saying "I hope they like it" over and over as they look at the conceptual chart for hubworld.
The art team are working on stylish sheep and dinosaurs.
The CM team is trying to get George to breathe into a paper bag, after the panic attack that came from seeing ten thousand unread irate emails in his inbox.

My best guess

What do you mean? They nailed it! 8/10...oh wait that's bad .

Yeah I'm not sure how Apple treats these "special cases" when the creator of an app has clout enough that they overlook some of their standards. It's certainly happened in this case... You can't promise multiplayer and not deliver it as far as I have ever seen. 

This will not however grant them immunity from the refunds, I've seen them go after the big boys (notably EA) for losing game progress and data. I just hope they are being advised correctly and don't think they are going to avoid getting hit by the refund train... It takes a few back and forths but believe me I hear it chugging along. If you want to see it in action start watching the facebook posts...when lots of those start saying "I got a refund" thats when the pace will pick up.