Larian Studios Forums Dragon Commander Dragon Commander - General Looking for some really good ideas and feedback

Hey all,

I wanted to pitch the following blog entry because we could really do with your feedback - in short it deals with us struggling to increase our online promotional reach and also how to describe Dragon Commander.

http://www.lar.net/2012/12/04/larian-needs-your-help/

All suggestions/feedback/ideas welcome!

"One of our bigger issues is that the gameplay of Dragon Commander changed drastically over the course of development. It started out as a game that was also going to appear on console and contained quite a lot of action, but ended up as a game for the more thoughtful yet skilled player, featuring quite a lot of strategy. While I personally think Dragon Commander is now vastly more fun that it used to be, the big problem this caused is that all the communication so far was more or less beside the point. And we did communicate quite a lot about it…"

This is one of the downsides of releasing too much information too soon. I know the game is different to when it was originally announced and this will leave some people confused. Just my two cents but you could do with a few more bullet points explaining the game further. Casual gamers tend to be lazy; they can't be bothered to read an entire article and just want a summary and think 'that sounds great' and purchase.

Also IGN still says the game will be for the Xbox and PS3 and their info is probably out of date - could do with trying to get that updated.

Maybe get some developer previews / interviews with the big gaming sites such as IGN nearer the time of release where you can explain fully what the game is about and what parts have changed from the original design. For more serious gamers I think this is a good idea - I for one read all these sort of things before making a purchase. I'd look at getting these done around 3 to 4 months before the planned release date. What you have on youtube and facebook is fine but I think you need to advertise further - I bet a few people will think Dragon Commander is a facebook game. If it's a PC game then it needs to be targeted at PC gaming sites and magazines. Many of us do not use facebook.

The story needs clarifying - in your blog it says you are one of the last dragon knights; I thought in this game you were one of the first. Divinity 2 was where you was one of the last.

I have been reading these forums so I am familiar with what has happened with Dragon Commander but many others won't.

Ill add more when I can think clearer. Not well today.

In Divinity 2 you were in fact last dragon knight, not one of last. There were never many dragon knights either as implied by some sources in Divinity 2 story (Maxos chosing only 1 dragon knight at the time despite both candidates being promising), probably just a few at any given time. What is more interesting to me if story happens before or after Slayers came to be. If after then I guess we can forget about humans as allies, unless I missed when they were confirmed to be one of sides.

That's something I'm not sure about - when the game is set. From the original info I thought it was set in Maxos's time when the dragon knights were just starting to become known to the world. The game is basically about one Dragon knight pitched against another both of which are trying to claim territories etc. Now that I read that blog it seems that the story may have changed.

As for Divinity 2, yes you are correct in that you were the last dragon knight but it does not rule it out there could be more in the future. The Patriarch is still alive and I would have thought he would have the ability to 'make' more. Prehaps for future games. But that is for another discussion thread.

Hmm, as far as I remember elves were dragon knights too long before humans, but we indeed do not know how many were there at any point. They could as well always be low in numbers.
A clarification as to when DC takes place would indeed be great to have, else we are only speculating.

Since the title of this game sounds like a "real strategy" game it's in my opinion very important
to let all people know this game is NOT like all (of the most) strategy games !
What about "making choices"? Choices via choosing another "upgrade" or making another strategical step ? Or both ? And what about the Yetpack? I'm sure this is a magnificient boost for the dragon, but I read nothing about the Jetpack !?

I know Larian games are maked with passion & love and include like always great soundtracks of Kirill Prokovski AND "tons of humour" ! What about this ?

And if it's planned to make a "real board game" too, why not telling people something about that ? Or : make work of this board game and send it on the market BEFORE the video game itself ... as some kind of publicity act for the game ? But don't know if this is possible ?

Give away some "tickets to Larian" so a few people can come in and "test/look into the game like it is at the moment (I'm guessing on this moment NO big changes are in the planning anymore?) and ask the testers to write a short description how they see this game, how it feels ?
Not sure if this IS possible, but to know :if these testing people are afterwards very enthousiastic you got not only more "words about DC" written, but a very good change "mouth to mouth" publicity is starting to live a big long life, on these forums (or elswhere) !!
Then you've to say on the internet : here is a link to our forums/(elswhere), read it, enjoy it, follow it, ...

I'm almost sure many people registered on our forums are waiting for news ... don't let them die of hunger !

These are a few of my thoughts so far .
I feel a bit confused about the game today .
In the past I screamed from the roof "Jippie ja hey,
"Me dragon is smart using a Jetpack in war !"

I'd love to see one from RPS

in my personal opinion You should send this game to Jesse Cox at omfgcata, release beta keys to twitch.tv streamers, Send it to rps, and kotaku, and organize a huge battle between three famous youtubers say, Jesse Cox, Total Bisucuit, and wowcrendor, or Yogscast. Finally if the boardtop game is done you should send it to geek and sundry and suggest they play it on tabletop.

The first really good idea that pops in my mind is the Dragon Commander Site (+DOS). The site hasn't changed in ages and it's the first result when 'dragon commander' is typed in google. So I guess this is where most people get their first impression on DC.
I know the facebook page updates a lot, but please, the game's site itself? It doesn't provide any info at all. No platforms, min specs, release date, no news, not even a proper description... It's no longer fitting a game that has come to it's last stage of development!

All right, I'll go for ripping it apart. You do realize the irony in asking us to re-write a press release to be a better description of how the game has changed when we ourselves haven’t seen how it’s changed, right?



"The lands of Rivellon are overrun by the forces of chaos."

The first sentence is okay, but it's so generic it could really refer to any game. It's the kind of thing that gamers eyes pass right over. It doesn't tell me anything about THIS game. Think about about what kind of chaos, what the consequences of it are.


"You are one of the last dragon knights."

The difference between "the last" and "one of the last" is a small distinction. It's far too similar to how you'd describe Divinity 2. People shouldn't be able to confuse this with Divinity 2. Your games should be a bit more distinctive than that. Perhaps something like "One of the first Dragon Knights"?


"Do you have what it takes to unite the races and build an army formidable enough to defeat the biggest threat ever?"

But unless there's something you really need to tell us, it's not the biggest threat ever. The previous games have had you fighting to prevent the Lord of Chaos, who "might return all the universe to an empty primal Chaotic void" or something like that. That sounds a lot bigger a threat than some empress conquering a bunch of lands. It's implied in Divine Divinity that Demons invaded and slaughtered their way through the lands of Ferol. Beyond Divinity had Damian assisting in planetary genocide, and Divinity 2 had Damian gassing Broken Valley and Orobas Fjords. What's the Really Big Deal with the Big Bad in this game? You might want to be much more specific. Just putting out Generic RPG Press Release #267 isn't going to turn a lot of heads. What makes this game different? What makes this game exciting? What are the consequences for failing to stop the bad guy?

Also I’m STILL wondering what happened to the Orc race. They were in Divine Divinity as one of the seven council seats and had a big part, but here, they’ve been replaced by the undead race for some reason.




"Become the Dragon – Take control of the dragon in you and join your troops in combat, assisting them with a host of powerful magic skills"

Perhaps use more powerful language here. Not just "Become the Dragon", make it more explicit: "Dominate the skies as a Dragon, assist your troops in combat with a host of powerful magic skills" - You might also want to mention the jetpack as well, because from what I hear, the jetpack is the most memorable thing about the Dragon. Memorable is good. "Dominate the skies as a Dragon to assist your troops in combat, using a rocket pack and a host of devastatingly destructive magic skills." Alliteration is your friend.


"Dynamic story driven campaign – After each battle, you make choices that affect the lives of everybody in the empire and from your strategi map, decide which countries to attack"

(First of all, you made a typo - "strategic".) If there really are thousands of permutations, I would emphasize that. Lots of games can claim to have a dynamic story driven campaign, but how many have 5 endings for each of 6 different princesses?



If there are different endings that are not just “game over” for losing the war, mention that as well.

You could also throw in a bullet-point about the revolutionary facial animation technology that you’re using to make the voice-acting match the facial movements uniquely instead of using canned animations.

Overall my advice is “You didn’t make a generic game, so don’t make a generic press release.”

*****

Also, for marketing purposes, enthusiastic fans spreading the word through their social networks and communities are probably a really good idea. I'd certainly love to help promote the game on the other forum I'm a member of, but I'm not going to do that with outdated information. Once there's new information, screenshots, videos and such, then I can make a thread. Post another one of those fansite packs like you did for Beyond Divinity, full of things the fans can use to make their own threads on other forums, and the fans will get to work promoting the game - and they won't even ask to be paid!

I forgot about that official site. Yes, agree with those points you made. The official web site is the most important thing to keep up to date. Stabbey made some very good points also - he's put it much better than I have.

That is really a good idea - noted & thank you for that. We'll try to make it happen!

You're 100% correct, but that's about to be fixed.

That ought to help them. Nice work Stabbey!

There was another element uniqe in DC that deserves to be mentioned : the modern problems and moral choices the knight has to deal with. Just make sure no one will come to think of Fable III when mentioning those

"Prepare for a modern fantasy world that faces various problems on economy, theology, global climate, healt care ... Will your reign lead to prosperity or crisis?"

I was wondering if somebody was going to pick up on that So here's the irony - given the big changes and to make sure we're not giving the wrong impression, we're not releasing any footage before the new artwork is in. This obviously complicates communication, which we want to correct as fast as possible. The plan is to do a major website update as well as a new "What is DC" video this month still, but by then obviously we want the language to be right also



You're right, but we're also trying to get something in there that people recognise. One thing we're afraid of is players ignoring the game because it seems too alien to them, whereas in reality it features plenty of stuff they know from other games. But your suggestions make sense - I've just done an update and will do another one.

Thx for the feedback!
*****



Fanpack, coming up.

Absolutely, that would make a great and memorable bullet point as well, because most games don't ask you to think about things like that.

I would make sure that you highlight the fact that this game isn't just turnbased strategy as a lot of my friends dislike those games, and prefer to play games that they can play the savior in, ie if a battle is going bad or your terribly outnumbered all hope isn't lost and you can turn the tide yourself by joining in the fray or something along those ines.

Also give people decisions that they normally wouldn't find in games for example in one of the kessen games i use to love before each battle there was a strategy phase where you could pick an advisers suggestion, ie my chief strtegist may suggest a fire attack or lurring them into a canyon and dropping rocks on them, where as my chief general may suggest a shield wall.

Also a game mechanic suggestion could be a freemode in which the map is randomized, and all races start with a single city and expand out.

Finally Make sure the princesses have dynamic characters and personalites, and that war isn't the only way to win, and that you don't have to be either good or bad. which in my opinion is where fable screwed up.

Suggestions are welcome, but there's another topic for that

Just spontaneous thoughts :

- The story stiol isn't clear to me. Is there any ?
- How do the strategy mechanics work ? I mean, if you are doing an RTS game, then RTS fans might perhaps want to know how it works ? Especially the "rules set", perhaps ?
- Perhaps ask people from sites which are foused on strategy games ? Like ... "Strategy Informer", for example ?

Yesterday I reread some of the dialogs on screenshots on the DC site and have the great impression HUMOUR is really sitting in almost ALL dialogs! This is great and don't change this please

One of the reasons I wish to buy DC is just because of the humour & music of Kirill, two trademarks of Larian Studios many people known them for sure and are mostly very enthousiastic about that, so THIS is something you can tell the wolrd, something NOT sounding "alien" ! Just an example, but also just a case of writing down a few words : Kirill - humour are inside

I know my english isn't my motherlanguage, so excuses if not all is clearly explained, but I hope you can understand what I mean and, don't forget, all what plop up in my mind I write down... maybe some good ideas, but also many strange, impossible or words/phrases that sound "alien"

But many other members already come up with good suggestions

O and don't forget you've Farhang Namdar in the studio ! He's really a good publicity man too!! Making a good AND humouristic video for promoting the Anthology ! When I say it the first time I START to want that box only for the stickers & Developer's Journal !
Can you imagine that ?!?