Mephistopheles: Not All Linux Games Sell Well

[allquixotic]

I'm actually slightly compelled to go buy this game from the video... the graphics aren't *great*, but certainly not terrible. I don't know why some people have such extraordinarily high expectations that anything they look at be completely photorealistic. To me it's all about the gameplay.

The gameplay did look interesting, but I'm also leaning heavily towards story-based games lately, so maybe it would be for the best if they could provide at least a few static hand-scripted quests in between the procedurally generated content (this is exactly what Diablo did, btw).

[F.Ultra]

Heres hoping for Steel Storm III instead, just a bummer that Kot-in-Aktion stopped providing updates for us who bought the game from their own store and simply refeers us to Steam (which I cannot use as a non Windows user) and Desura (which I don't have at the moment since I'm not interested in installing a big infrastructure just to play one game).

Regarding Humble Hundle, if I'm not remembering incorrectly Steel Storm was thrown in as a bonus in Humble Bundle #3 and was not in the bundle from the start. If so then it would explain why they didn't get such big a piece of the pie.

[crispy]

Too much action for me

Maybe im getting old, but nowadays I only really feel like being a care-bear in games. Something cozy like dungeon keeper, but lazier Or heroes of might and magic. Something that takes a lot of thinking to make one little move and make you feel like you are building something up... Something like Anno XXXX or civilization...

Your game might be good, but not my taste -- sorry!

[FreeBooteR69]

I had a look at the video and there just isn't enough there to catch my interest. The game looks pretty old tech too, so why not instead appeal to nostalgia. I have recently replayed games like Dungeon Master, Eye of the Beholder, and Black Crypt. Why not create a game more like that, it would be within a small gaming houses budget, and you'd have a ton of people wanting to try it out, because i know a lot of people who loved those games and would like to see their return.

[AnonymousCoward]

Procedurally generated maps shouldn't count that much against them, and it is an RPG with more to offer than Angry Birds.

Action-RPG, it says. Expecially combined with "procedurally generated" that means to me there are random people telling you to fetch random stuff, and when you get enough, you can go fight the final boss. In other words, the story is an alibi for the setting, but not intrinsic to your actions in the game. That doesn't have to be bad, see World Of Goo for example. But when I see "story-driven", I think of something like Arx Fatalis, not Diablo.

[Prescience500]

Also just in: not all Windows games sell well.

DAMN IT!!! I was going to say that

[[Knuckles]]

The linux software market isn't that developed yet, but I think we are getting to a point where there are a number of games.

To this I mean, you can choose to support linux game development by buying any of them, but we're a bit past the point of just paying because "here, we're making a linux game, so help us", especially if the game is closed-source (by this I mean, that even if you don't like the game, some of the code might be useful to other projects).

Honestly, I just didn't think the game or the concept were interesting. And I bought a native linux game 4 days ago, which is not by far the first.

[downer]

Is this story-driven? The wiki page linked above doesn't contain the word "story", just "procedurally generated".

Before being imprisoned for eternity, Mephistopheles, the Lord of Darkness, put his sinister knowledge into several tomes which were scattered across the land. Many wicked souls were corrupted by the Devil and spent their lives searching for the wretched Tomes of Mephistopheles, to gain the knowledge of their unholy power. It has been foretold that the beholder of the Tomes will possess the greatest power known to mankind and will rule the world, but will corrupt it and leave it in ruins. The secret society known as the Deputies of Uriel dispatched its most skillful members to find the Tomes and destroy them at any cost. Will you fulfill your duty or succumb to the corruption of the Dark Lord ?

Tomes of Mephistopheles is a first-person action-RPG dungeon crawler. With its fast-paced fluid combat, a multitude of medieval and magical weapons, an in-depth custom spell system, and randomly generated persistent worlds, ToM is a pinnacle of the genre.
Seeking the sinister Tomes, you will forge a path through the dungeons using anything that becomes available to you, while attaining skill and power along the way by exploring, questing, and crafting unique equipment and tailoring spells for yourself.

Procedurally generated maps shouldn't count that much against them, and it is an RPG with more to offer than Angry Birds.

[psycho_driver]

I'm interested in this game. I'm not interested in paying for it until it's complete.

[schmidtbag]

i'm not surprised this didn't sell well, i'm sorry to say it but the game seems very amature-ish. it seems to have a LOT of potential, but it looks like it was only developed for a month by less than 3 people (including graphics and sound) as a hobbyist project.

i'm sure selling an alpha was inspired by games which did the same thing and were successful such as minecraft. minecraft did look hideous and when it was first released, it defintely wasn't the best game out there but the major difference is that had game had a free demo and a very unique concept. people enjoyed the demo enough that when they saw a cheap alpha sale that would grant them a copy of the game when it was released, it sold very quickly. mepistopheles, as far as i'm aware, has no free demo (the alpha stage right now basically seems like a demo) and doesn't have a whole lot of new interesting ideas to it. people need more than just videos to want to buy a new series of a game and they need something compellingly new.

i wish the mephistopheles game luck, i have no interest in buying it now but my opinion could easily change after another couple monthsof development.