Any update on sales, possible expansion or Book III?

[tungprc]

I'm not sure how long it took for Book I to turn a profit and for BW to make the decision to make Book II. Anyone remember? It might give us an inkling as to how long we'll have to wait to hear about any expansions/sequels.

[BasiliskWrangler]

The expansion is a guarantee. I've been working on it a bit this week, but I can't start to integrate the new content into the game until we have version 1.04 finalized. Hopefully 1.04 will be finished next week, then we'll do some beta testing on it and release it.

After that, we'll start to integrate the expansion content into what will become version 1.05. A big announcement on this will happen in July.

Book II has not paid for itself yet. It actually took Book I a full year to pay for itself, but we were able to forecast after 6 months of sales that we were going to make it. We hope to be able to project Book II sales accurately enough in another month to determine whether or not we can move ahead with Book III. Until then, rest assured that we are always working on something around here...

[TNoyce]

That's good to know. I look forwards to having some additional content, as well as new areas to explore.

[dundonalddub]

I just look forward to adding anything from BW to my games. They are great! Keep on trucking!

[Sajen]

Great news, can't wait for new content for book 2. Hope there is enough interest in terms of sales to generate a book 3.

[kelticpete]

glad to hear about book 3. this game is addictive. and a nice break from gaming that requires real time.

[IJBall]

After that, we'll start to integrate the expansion content into what will become version 1.05. A big announcement on this will happen in July.

I had a dream last night that I woke up this morning, and you had already posted an announcement about the date of the release of the expansion pack on this forum! LOL!

[thelinyguy]

This has probably been answered in some form already, but I just don't have the time to do a thorough search.

With all this talk about making enough profit to fund development of Book III, are you implying that Basilisk Games' future hinges on such, or just that this particular project wouldn't have funding at this time? Basically I'm wondering if other projects are in development concurrently and if their budget is independent, or if you don't have enough for Book III then you don't have enough for anything?

[Kreador Freeaxe]

This has probably been answered in some form already, but I just don't have the time to do a thorough search.

With all this talk about making enough profit to fund development of Book III, are you implying that Basilisk Games' future hinges on such, or just that this particular project wouldn't have funding at this time? Basically I'm wondering if other projects are in development concurrently and if their budget is independent, or if you don't have enough for Book III then you don't have enough for anything?

Pretty much Basilisk Games is one guy who put his life savings into this business to develop these games. If he's not bringing in enough to pay his bills and keep his family clothed and fed and put a little away for the future, he'll have to go out into that wonderfully vibrant job market and any game development will become a weekend project, at best. At least, that would be my assumption.

[IJBall]

Ah - for more info to JL's last question, see BW's (partial) answer here.

[frogbeard]

Book II has not paid for itself yet. It actually took Book I a full year to pay for itself, but we were able to forecast after 6 months of sales that we were going to make it. We hope to be able to project Book II sales accurately enough in another month to determine whether or not we can move ahead with Book III.

I don't know if this idea has been put forth before, but have you considered putting up a donation button on the main page? I bet there are a lot of us that, if we heard Book III was in danger, would be willing to donate funds to keep the project going. It might turn out to not be enough, but it's not a bad idea for small/indie developers to try.

[IJBall]

I don't know if this idea has been put forth before, but have you considered putting up a donation button on the main page? I bet there are a lot of us that, if we heard Book III was in danger, would be willing to donate funds to keep the project going. It might turn out to not be enough, but it's not a bad idea for small/indie developers to try.

Along the same lines, if the Book II Expansion isn't charged for (and, personally, I think it probably should be - $5-$10 seems reasonable to me), then I think the expansion should at least be "donateware".

I personally would have no problem kicking in, or donating, another $5-10 to gain access to Fathamurk...

[Kreador Freeaxe]

Book II has not paid for itself yet. It actually took Book I a full year to pay for itself, but we were able to forecast after 6 months of sales that we were going to make it. We hope to be able to project Book II sales accurately enough in another month to determine whether or not we can move ahead with Book III.

I don't know if this idea has been put forth before, but have you considered putting up a donation button on the main page? I bet there are a lot of us that, if we heard Book III was in danger, would be willing to donate funds to keep the project going. It might turn out to not be enough, but it's not a bad idea for small/indie developers to try.

Or, you could "donate" by ordering extra copies to give to friends, thus also bringing BW some new potential fans. This is my plan, anyway, as soon as a few more checks clear.

[tungprc]

I'm hoping that the game has long legs, like the last one. The forums are already dying out. Posts have been dropping steadily since release and there are only 7-10 new topics/day. Maybe that's normal though. Most of us have finished it at least once and some (Randomizer) several hundred times There's nothing new to discuss until BW gives more details on his expansion.

I'll be curious to see how well the expansion does, download-wise. I'm basically finished with the game and ready to move on to something different. I probably won't come back to EBII just to play a dungeon. What'll happen for me is that 6 months to a year from now, I'll be looking for something to play and remember EBII fondly. That will be when I download any expansions that are available and give them a go.

I enjoyed my personal challenge game where I tried to go as far as possible quest-wise before leveling up. I wasn't a big fan of the in-game challenges but I was a minority. They seem to be a popular feature. Here's to hoping we see Book III soon. I know that the only successful indie crpg-maker feels he has to put a game out about once a year to stay afloat. He does it for a living though. I honestly can't remember if BW has a full-time job on top of all the Dev time.

[Randomizer]

I still haven't played as many games as Crazy Bernie, but he has the advantage of a Windows computer.

In game challenges are fun when you don't have trouble beating the game. I spent lots of time trying to play with just one class or some other restriction to see what would happen. My favorite was seeing how high I could get my base armor so the monsters went down to 1% chance to hit. I need to do that one again to see if I can make General Ghorr get to that level.