Price hike
You read that correctly, against all conventional thinking I’m actually going to raise the price of this game to $9.99 USD. The one thing I want all the newcomers here to know is… we have no idea what we’re doing. Seriously, not a clue. BUT I’ve learned a little bit over the last 5 years releasing this game on Steam and the PlayStation Store and I can assure you I won't make an extra dime directly by raising the price.
"How is that possible?!?" You might ask.
It's simple, nobody buys this game. We only sell ~1 unit a week If the game isn’t on sale and I still intend to do HEAVY sales like we always have. So, if you’re thinking about buying the game before the price increase DON’T!!! wait until the next sale on April 22nd and pick it up for $0.99!!!
So why increase the price? One thing I learned too late is that companies must make money to stay in business. Not us though because we donated most of our profits to animal shelters like chumps ːsteamsaltyː (I'm actually very proud of what we were able to accomplish as a community). Most distributors and publishers need to make money to pay their employees and keep the ball rolling. I guess that’s understandable but because of that they generally don’t see games under $10 as financially viable to promote. So, by raising the price we gain a lot more leverage to promote the game.
Currently, my personal goal for CAT Interstellar is to get as many people to play it as possible. I really enjoy the game development process, writing science fiction stories, and I absolutely love interacting with the community. Maybe one day, years from now, I’ll be seasoned enough at game development to do this as a career but I currently still work a full time job and have a family so it takes me a lot longer than other studios to get content out. Additionally, I totally understand all the criticisms and critiques you all have voiced about this game. There are thousands of forum posts and reviews and I have read every single one of them and tried to respond to most… Except the latest forum post “Hey. DEV WHY U MAKE SO HARD WORK FOR NOTHING???” which I’m still trying to think of a clever response. Seriously though, I can't even begin to tell you how blown away I am that people bought this game 5 years ago and are still active on the forums.
As for the big announcement, there’s gonna be a sequel and it’s gonna kick some major ass. I wasn’t shoveling manure when I said I understand the criticisms. As a first-time game developer, publisher, and writer there was a number of mistakes I made (mainly with the story) that I didn’t even realize until it was too late. I totally see how the game seems disconnected but it is not and I fully intend to close a lot of those holes with Episode II.
I really believe this game will carry a lot more weight when viewed in the context of the whole story arc. the primary purpose of the CAT Interstellar story is to introduce a faster-than-light (FTL) drive called The Stutter Drive. A concept I started while getting my physics degree and have been working on for 6 years!!!
Watch on YouTube
As an example of my failure to properly story tell (spoiler): The Stutter Drive is a derivative technology of the stutter assembler seen here:
I’m a little disappointed than none of you picked up on that considering I made no mention of it in the game or dialog. The game is littered with similar references like this to Earth, the U.N.C., and even the moon. Btw, the cat at the end doesn’t die. In fact, Nature is about to make a major comeback on Earth. I’ll be dropping a lot more details about the sequel leading up to an actual announcement but we’re going to do a episodic structure. You can also follow us on twitter @ionizedgames where we’ll be tweetering things.
Lastly, the CAT Interstellar: Episode II will be a separate application. There's just no realistic way to merge the two after 5 years of engine updates but I figured one thing I could do is open a beta branch so you all can have access to the second episode at least through the beta. I'll also try to dig through the mountain of Steam documentation and see what else is possible. I genuinely appreciate your support and I couldn't have made it this far without you. I hope you're all buckled in for the next iteration of the CAT Interstellar universe because it's gonna be nuts!!!
P.S. I know people have strong feelings whenever cost is mentioned. As always, you can be a harsh/blunt to me as you want since I'm just a computer but please be respectful to other users.