Impressions of a new customer (HIB)
I bought this game as part of the HIB (on which I spend a lot of money). I had never heard of cortex command, but looked at some videos and it looked like a really fun concept.
I came to the website to look to see if there is a newer build since the one from the bundle was so buggy that it is basically unplayable.
I quickly found out that apparently this is the first update in 1.5 years, which brings few updates and many people are complaining about this.
But what really shocked me is the reaction of the main developer who appears unapologetic of spending little time on a project which appears to be his day job, and main source of income:
Data wrote:
Oh, I am a very lazy person, and am happy to admit it! Also, I'm afraid no one has a right to demand otherwise.. if you bought the game, you should have noticed the big disclaimer in red about why it is discounted; it says explicitly that there is NO promise of it ever being finished, or when another version will come out. If this somehow wasn't clear enough, you are welcome to ask for a refund through the payment processor, and it will be promptly granted. You are, however, not welcome to make demands and try to guilt me into "working harder for you" because I happen to make a living off the earnings of my project. What I do with my time and money is none of your beeswax, guys
- D
This might just be a really defensive knee jerk reaction to many users with an exaggerated sense of entitlement. And legally Data is certainly right that no one can (again legally) expect anything.
Still I find this reaction baffling. In this day and age where anyone is able to (illegally) get your product for free if they want to and where word of mouth is the best publicity for any indie developer, to be so in your face offensive to customers seems like a really poor business strategy.
Now you might think you already have gotten all you want out of the customer, but these are the same people who recommended your game and made it possible for you to life of its success. They might also be wary of spending money on any future games you develop (if you even plan to). And lastly many people (myself obviously included) react badly to people who seem proud/unapologetic about getting by with a minimum of work, that makes it feel almost like a scam.
By the way, the disclaimer mentioned above is only if shown on the website if you click on "our games" (and scroll all the way to the bottom) but not if you click on "buy now" and certainly not if you bought the game through the humble bundle. And even so it still gives the impression that the game is actively and vigorously being worked on, as users have come to expect from games such as minecraft or overgrowth, where the money of alpha sales is used to fund the development of further builds. Which then obviously creates some expectations towards developers actually spending time developing the game (as the devs from the other mentioned games do).
Again these are just impression and reactions, and if I got some facts wrong, I apologize. But at this point I am disappointed this was even included in the bundle.
