PC Invasion speaks to Solarfall’s Daniel Dolui about their freshly-funded ARPG, Umbra.
Stephanie Smith writes: "Well, Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem will be releasing on Early access for a lower than expected price of $20. Unfortunately, one of their reward tiers (APPRENTICE) pledged $25 to gain Early Access. To compensate the change in price the developers upped the rewards for their backers including access to the Alpha for APPRENTICE level backers and an exclusive item with weapon pack. Despite the fact the difference is only $5, there are a few backers who are very displeased."
Backers need to realize that reward tiers aren't meant to be a discount, but rather a nice incentive for backing.
I don't think that is the issue here. They paid for a higher-price reward tier that was supposed to give "early access". The developer has now decided everyone will get early access.
So they basically paid more for no reason. Why shouldn't they be upset?
The price changed and they were offered something for it, what should the developer of offered instead?
Easy, a $5 refund somehow. Does it matter that it is only $5?
What if a KS offered a game for $30. Game + Expansion Pass for $60.
After the campaign closes, they decide that they will just give the Expansion to everyone for free.
Is that still acceptable? I would hope you would say it isn't.
That money was likely already spent on developing the game, and also they would have to compensate every tier of backers if they offered $5 back to EVERYONE who backed it (myself included) not just the $25 backers.
I don't really care if its already been spent. They basically tricked people into paying an extra $5 for no reason. That's wrong.
You can't advertise a certain reward if you spend more, but then give the reward to everyone. That is dumb.
They paid for early access. They get early access. Unless they want to carry an elitist "I was part of early access" mentality, I don't see the issue. Having more early access folks means having more people find issues with the final game.
Dan Miller writes:"The name change also extended to developer Solarfall Games who were transforming into Wolcen Studios and it took more than 40 comments before they added any more detail. Bizarrely though they those to post the explanation on their own website and merely link to it from the comments section of the update which was hardly going to improve the mood of backers."
Don't love either of the names, and the demo wasn't that great, so it doesn't matter.
Nathaniel Liles writes: "Umbra's Kickstarter campaign jumped off with a pretty stellar gameplay preview, and soon enough, we'll finally be able to get our hands on the Early Access release of the game. Blending hack-and-slash gameplay with a Diablo point-of-view and a Gauntlet number of enemies, Umbra stands out amongst the competition. Of course, no Early Access game is without its shortcomings, so here's what to expect by way of content."
