The Moon.

I’m not saying don’t look forward to our game, but possibly be prepared for something… different.

I think if anyone ever remixes anything we do then that’s an automatic sign of success, lol.

As for what I’d pay… Again, even if a game can be beaten within 30 minutes, if there’s a good likelihood that I’ll play it again (and again and again)… then I’d say at least $5, if not more.

> The first factor is obvious: How much fun is it?

Not surprisingly we talk about this topic a lot, what would be fun and what wouldn’t. We’re still batting around different ideas, but multiplayer could be a big part of the final result.

> The second factor is replay value.

I think the first answers this one for a shmup. If it isn’t fun it won’t have much else to offer to tempt you to replay it. Ultimately that’s true of all games in my opinion.

> The third factor, and I’m not sure how I feel about myself when I admit this, is who makes the game.

I don’t see anything wrong with being a fan of a game development company and preferring to purchase their work if you’ve been happy with it in the past.

The idea of just doing design sounds too much like the architects that used to piss us off when I was a carpenter- the guys who had no idea how the physical world or code restrictions worked, just drew something up and sent it out for us to swear about and modify until it made some semblance of sense. I don’t want to be that guy.

To use another analogy, when I was doing theater I did both acting and tech work for each production. I always felt like it was important to have some idea of what went into having a stage to act on, and how many people worked behind the scenes and were only seen for about 30 seconds to take a final bow.

This isn’t to say that I wouldn’t want to do design work, but I’d also feel wrong about designing without also at least having some idea of what the programmers would be going through while I was thinking of things to implement.

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Now, to your question of how to determine what I’d pay for a game:

There are a lot of factors that go into that decision (based on the game’s own merits- for example, ignoring that the game is made by friends, or its status as a collector’s item).

The first factor is obvious: How much fun is it? Fun encapsulates a lot of things, but the bottom line on that point is that if the game will capture me in some way and make me *want* to play it, it’s worth something. Multiplayer or a framework for competition (online high-scores and such) is another factor in fun, because doing things with other people (even if they’re across the globe, or in your living room as observers) is almost always more fun than doing them alone.

The second factor is replay value. This is different from time-to-beat, which I would rank a bit lower. A shmup that takes 30 minutes to beat might seem like a disappointment, but if the design is such that I’ll want to play it over and over again, trying to improve my score, then 30 minutes isn’t really an accurate measure. Not only the time spent playing, but the time spent *thinking* about playing matters. This is true for anything. Oblivion is a massive juggernaut of a game, but I’ll be honest- I’ve spent more time thinking, strategizing, and theorizing on that game than I’ve spent playing it, by a huge margin. The same could easily be true of a shmup, because they are exercises in precision. I might beat your game in one day and spend the next couple of years trying to get better at it.

The third factor, and I’m not sure how I feel about myself when I admit this, is who makes the game. Renting isn’t really something I do all that often anymore, though perhaps I should, so a lot of purchases are based on faith. I buy Mario games because I know that Nintendo is borderline-psychotic about making those games fun. I buy Konami games because they have a tradition of groundbreaking gameplay. I will buy Bethesda because I’m a convert and I think they’re awesome and I would kill men- just straight-up murder, like, a country- if I could go write for those people. I buy Capcom games because they’re well-designed, challenging, and I need a reminder that I’m terrible at videogames every now and again because my religion demands humility. I would buy a game made by the two of you because I know you’re both ruthless perfectionists and serious artists (and also my friends). Review scores factor into this somewhat, but honestly I’ve missed a lot of really good games and only noticed them years later because reviewers are human, and they play so many games that I think they sometimes lose perspective (ignoring more insidious possibilities like paid-for scores and the like).

There are other factors (visuals, music, writing, whether is comes with free heroin), but I’ve suddenly realized that I’m writing quite a bit and I have work to do around here. I’ll post an addendum later (and I’m sure Davyerit has some thoughts on the matter as well).

The answer to your question about how much I would pay for a shmup made by you and Wall that would take 30 minutes to beat and would be available on all platforms is… I don’t know. On the App store it’d probably be a dollar, but I’ve always thought that that’s too low for a really good game. I’d be willing to pay 5 bucks easily. Depending on other information (potential play-throughs with different ships, high-score postings, how good the soundtrack is, adjustable difficulty levels), probably more. It’s just difficult to say. Imperishable Night is what, 30 bucks? It’s worth every cent and honestly more. More information required before I could give an accurate answer.