tegan

Transistor

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They had the first demo at PAX East 2013, then another at PAX Prime 2013, then again at PAX East 2014.  I think each demo was a little different (I only played the first 2) and there was a lot of buzz about the game at the convention.  I'm actually quite glad they're not doing a giant marketing campaign because I've gotten sick of a game before even playing it due to marketing.  The demo naturally only had snippets of the soundtrack, but man it was beautiful.

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Yeah, for an indie game you want the push to be day of release so that people see the trailer, then go, 'I'll buy that' and you've already got it ready for them to buy. You don't want to do much pre-release marketing because you don't have to get people to plan to go to the store, and you can't afford people to forget about your game before you can sell it to them.

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Yeah, for an indie game you want the push to be day of release so that people see the trailer, then go, 'I'll buy that' and you've already got it ready for them to buy. You don't want to do much pre-release marketing because you don't have to get people to plan to go to the store, and you can't afford people to forget about your game before you can sell it to them.

 

I disagree, at least to some extent. The "seed" planted by the trailer on release day needs to have some soil in which to sprout, which I don't have at all. Maybe it's different if you've been to PAX, but all I know is a brief interview with Supergiant about how excited they are for Transistor almost a year ago and eighteen minutes of gameplay with some light developer commentary a month later. The game just hasn't been sold to me at all, which feels weird as someone who reads RPS and several other gaming news sites daily, so the release trailer is liable to do absolutely nothing, unless the buzz around it is just spectacular, in which case it'll still probably get filed away for a Steam sale someday.

 

I guess I just feel that there's a big difference between a "giant marketing campaign" and "failing to market your game at all", yet Supergiant has still managed to fall firmly in the latter category for me. How hard would it be for them to sit down with John Walker for ten minutes and tell me what the game's about after a year(!) of additional development?

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There's a fair bit of video content from the demo at this year's PAX East. Searching "Transistor" on YouTube brings it up.

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I think it is a bit different for me since I have seen and played it at PAX so I do have an idea what to expect.  For me, a Supergiant game with music by Darren Korb and voice work by Logan Cunningham is basically enough to sell me on whatever they want to make.  The fact that I've seen and heard it only adds to that, but I can certainly understand wanting that part.  When I said I was glad they don't have a big campaign, I didn't mean there shouldn't be one at all.  You certainly need some word out there and it does feel like there really isn't any.

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For me, a Supergiant game with music by this guy they know and voice work by one of the musician's friends is basically enough to sell me on whatever they want to make. 

 

It's so weird that Bastion was the breakout hit for both of those gentlemen.

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Yeah I agree with Gormongous. I am excited for this based on the pedigree of supergiant, and because the trailer looked cool, but the original announce trailer is the only piece of material I have seen about the game. I don't necessarily want a barrage of trailers, but seeing the name of the game and maybe what it is would make me more excited. I almost certainly will end up getting it once it comes out and I see what kind of game it is, but the awareness isn't there at all. It seems like it is only exposed to people who went to pax, or sought out coverage from pax independently. I think at least a little marketing would have been a good idea. Still, I'm excited, but based on how little I have seen of it, I think people who don't follow video games press and aren't involved actively have likely never even heard the name.

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I preordered because Bastion was awesome and the game sounds awesome. I don't need anything more.

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I've preordered it solely so I can say "I told you so" to no one in particular. 

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I actually have not preordered it yet despite all that I've said.  Mostly because when it does get released I'm not going to have time to play it.  I'd rather save it for when I do have time and not rush through it because I have to get as much play in as possible.

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I'm glad there aren't any preorder incentives because like SAM I don't have time to play it when it comes out. But I'll gladly pick it up for full price in June.

 

Transistor seems to be self-published unlike Bastion so I guess that's why it doesn't have as big a marketing push.

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Yeah, if it's any thing like Bastion then it will definitely reward slower and more thorough play throughs just to find all the secrets etc. 

 

I preordered it straight from their website through the Humble widget and ended up paying £12.25, a bit less than the £15 on Steam. My logic is that they'll get a higher percentage of the sale if it's through their store, right? 

 

Also could someone explain how I'd have to pay £12.25 when it was exchanged from $20 on the Humble site, but Steam has the price equating to £15? Is it something to do with tax? Or does Steam personally hate me?  

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Yeah, if it's any thing like Bastion then it will definitely reward slower and more thorough play throughs just to find all the secrets etc. 

 

Not only that, but the art and sound are things I want to enjoy slowly since they're both likely to be fantastic if Bastion was any indication.  I don't want to be rushing to get as much game in a short a time as possible out of it.  I think playing it fast and loose would leave me unsatisfied.

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Yeah, if it's any thing like Bastion then it will definitely reward slower and more thorough play throughs just to find all the secrets etc. 

 

I preordered it straight from their website through the Humble widget and ended up paying £12.25, a bit less than the £15 on Steam. My logic is that they'll get a higher percentage of the sale if it's through their store, right? 

 

Also could someone explain how I'd have to pay £12.25 when it was exchanged from $20 on the Humble site, but Steam has the price equating to £15? Is it something to do with tax? Or does Steam personally hate me?  

 

I guess Steam doesn't do automatic conversion if a developer just puts a dollar price on a game, so they have to come up with a price in pounds -  or if it does then it marks it up a bit. Humble's default price for Steam games in pounds is usually favourable as it seems to do the conversion closer to the exchange rate - which maybe automatic. Totally guessing here, obviously!

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I did end up preordering it after all. Also, if people haven't already mentioned, Greg Kasavin was on the latest Giant Bombcast, and they talked about some dev stuff and making transitor

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For me, a Supergiant game with music by Darren Korb and voice work by Logan Cunningham is basically enough to sell me on whatever they want to make.

^ This. I'll probably wait a while to buy it because I have so many games I need to finish up, but it's a definite must-have.

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Will be preordering the PS4 version tonight!  Very curious to see how (if at all) Greg's love of Dota 2 manifests itself.

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I've been playing through this for the last few days. It's still under embargo, so I can't really say much, but I'll have a review up at 9AM the morning of the 20th. I'll link it here when it goes up.

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I've been playing through this for the last few days. It's still under embargo, so I can't really say much, but I'll have a review up at 9AM the morning of the 20th. I'll link it here when it goes up.

Ten punctuation marks in that sentence. Three stops, five apostrophes, two commas. Ten.

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Out of ten or one hundred?

 

But wait, it's going up at 9... it's up from 9...

 

Oh my god it's Frog Fractions 2

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Ten punctuation marks in that sentence. Three stops, five apostrophes, two commas. Ten.

Half Life 10 confirmed.

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I've tried downloading my copy of transistor that I pre ordered through the humble store, but it keeps saying "transistor will be available on the 20th of May" and doesn't provide a download link. Is any one else having the same problem? It's available to download from Steam so SOMEONE BETTER START EXPLAINING RIGHT NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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On the steam store, it says that the game will unlock in 5 hours for me. My guess is that both steam and humble will allow you to download the game around noon EST/9AM PST.

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They've been tweeting recently to that effect.  Steam will be available at 10am pacific and "later that day" on PS4.

 

My hope is that the PS4 is out by the time I get home from work, so I can start the download before I go out on the town for some birthday libations (whiskey, then ramen (then Transistor)).  The joy of being on the west coast means that there's at least some hope it'll be out tonight before bedtime. :)

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