Realafbaff a dit :

Dear people at Atelier801,

I'm writing you this message knowing how the game-industry frowns upon ideas and suggestions from outsiders.
But after reading the dark underlined forumpost about the current state of your company I couldn't help myself.
I love the concept of Dead Maze, and seeing how the game missed the big wave and is losing momentum breaks my heart.
Therefore I feel obligated to share my 2 cents, and maybe, just maybe I can contribute something by doing so.


Dead Maze is a sinking ship.
As you acknowledge in the forumpost, the game basicly failed at the one and only chance a game gets these days. And here's why:

Flash.
You allready know. The fact people lose all their gear due to lag and still play is a miracle. Not to mention invisible Avengers and missing dogs.

Advertising.
I did not know about the game untill I noticed it on ArmorGames frontpage, in the second half of the second row. That I clicked on it was pure luck.
The rest of the games propably had a low rating or something? But never have I seen you advertise this game anywhere. Its not even on the frontpage of your own website. Publicity doesnt have to cost anything. So not doing anything at all just isnt good enough.

Beta-players.
Okay so I found the game and start playing it. And what do I see? Players beïng at level 400 allready.
Oh, so apparantly this is an old game? Nope, these are beta-testers. They've been playing the game for a month or two allready.
Now this is no pvp game, so it shouldn't matter to me, but it does. For example:
The high-level betaplayers give a new player the feeling that they're way behind on something. Not knowing what te game has to offer they assume they've allready lost to these players.
The high-level betaplayers decide the value in all trading, they squeeze everything they need out of unsuspecting newbies, adding to the 'ive allready lost' feeling.
Now, I fully understand the necessity of closed-beta. But having people keep everything theyve earned during this period gives them an unfair advantage. I would recommend a complete overhaul of the closed beta, in which you test certain aspects of the game each week. Edit the stats of players as you wish, give 'm the items, the clothes and the map you need them to test. But when the beta-testing is done, take it all back, and reward the testers with an outfit or a medal or whatever. Not only does this remove the big devide between betatesters and post-release players, but it will leave something new for the betatesters as well. As in the complete finished game. They will automaticly add to the buzz around the game, helping you to get that bigbang-release you need.

Community.
For a gamingcompany that focusses a lot on community-based games you really failed to build a decent community here. The chat-option ingame is terrible, and tribe-benefits are non-existant. And I feel like Atelier801 isn't really part of the community either. People commenting on bugs etc never get an answer. The answer to all questions in forum is 'ask this in the correct topic'. Patchnotes are very limited. When stuff goes wrong, like with dogquests, you just dont say anything about it, and we're totally left in the dark for weeks. Funny enough, this total lack of communication is the only thing that brings people together in game, because we have to figure it all out for ourselves. Which brings me to my next point.

Guiding.
This game is complex. There's a lot of factors that determine wheter or not you will survive and/or thrive. But the game is very very limited on the information it gives you. You're basicly left to discover everything on yourself with nothing to guide you. I had to look up the most basic things on the wikia. Why does the game not tell what kind of damage a weapon does? Where do I find what resilience or aggro-bonus does? Why do I want a bed? How can I make a fire that doesnt whipe my foodbuff away?
Face it, a lot of players will never google for the answers, they just quit.

Monetizing.
Last but not least, the game has failed to bring in the big cash. I know because you told us in the forumpost. And even though I like the fact that this game is really free to play, this is a massive problem. I'm the last person to tell you to force us into microtransactions, like other games do. But you've gone to the total opposite extreme end, which isnt working either. You've got to find something in the middle. As off now you can only buy fraises. Why not add something collectible to that? If you spend a certain ammount on fraises, you get a random garden ornament to put in your camp. Now make it so that friends can visit eachothers camp and you've got an incentive. Or add a pizza-delivery service. If you spend a couple bucks, you'll get a hq-pizza delivered to your camp everyday for a month.
You had the creativity to come up with this whole game, yet in 5 minutes I came up with 2 better ways for monetizing.

So what now?
Dead Maze 2. You said you're getting into HTML for your next projects, so why not build the next Dead Maze in HTML? You have put all this groundwork into creating this concept, and you can still profit from it. Take the experience, take the ideas, take the brand, and rebuild it in HTML. The time you're saving by not working out a whole new idea can be put into learning the code. The time and money you're saving by not pumping the water out of this sinking ship that is Dead Maze 1, can be put into building a boat that actually floats. I have enough ideas to put a complete new twist to the game and monetize it, while keeping all core-mechanics and core-values intact. Seriously. I wish I could program it. And I'm just one dude, there has to be enough ideas for the next 500 Dead Maze standalones in this community if you just tap into it.

Now I dont expect any reaction from Atelier801, but I am wondering how the rest of the community feels about all of this.
Have I overlooked things contributing to the failure of Dead Maze, or has it not failed at all?
And what are your opinions on the future of Atelier801? Is it Dead Maze 1, Dead Maze 2, or something completely different?

Kind regards, The real Afbaff.