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Please read the current update for instructions on downloading the latest update. Players with Mac versions of the game will not be affected, but you will have a slightly longer wait for your version of the new maps. Please make a copy of your character folder before running the new update, just to make sure you don't lose any of your custom work.
It looks like we can give everyone a list of minimum specs for running City of Titans. Please keep in mind that this is 'for now' until we are able to add more graphics and other system refinements. Currently you will need :
Windows 10 or later required; no Intel integrated graphics like UHD, must have AMD or NVIDIA card or discrete chipset with 4Gb or more of VRAM
At least 16GB of main DRAM.
These stats may change as we continue to test.
To purchase your copy of the City of Titans Launcher, visit our store at https://store.missingworldsmedia.com/ A purchase of $50 or more will give you a link to download the Launcher for Windows or Mac based machines.
Have you thought about sending the game to Steam once it goes live, or even in beta?
I really don't know how it works from a publishing point but it might be something to at least consider to broaden your player base and advertise.
Love, peace, and hair grease! ❤
W̖e͙͈ͅ'r͜e̞̬͇̩̩̟̰ ͕̰̘̜à͕̭̝͍̫̺̠l̫͙͔̠ͅl̫ ̮̪͞ḿ̻͓͇a̠̖̼̙͓̮̫d̨̘̙͇ ̥̮͚͚͓h̪̣̲̭̰͡e͠r̵̭̼͍e̝̖͍̼̠̯.͎͠
I'm pretty sure MWM has considered it, but I don't recall if they've made a final decision.
Spurn all ye kindle.
If I remember right MWM wasn't going to publish on Steam initially, holding off to a possible later date. Something legal/marketing related, but I can't remember the exact reasoning they gave. Getting old sucks. :p
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They said they didn't want to get a publisher right away and lose control of the project. Steam was proposed as a way to 'Self Publish."
-- I personally don't know enough about the biz to have a good opinion on this...but I favor Self Publishing as a means to keep control in the hands of the people who created/love the game. We seriously do NOT need another NCSoft running the show.
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I'd say the main issue with Steam is the cut they take, which - I've heard - could be as high as 30%. That said - the level of market penetration that Steam offers is [I]huge[/I]. There is a LOT of stuff released on Steam every year though - in order to get noticed MWM would still have to advertise in the PC Game news circuit. So I guess they would have to decide if it's worth it: Steam (and similar services) could get more eyeballs on the game (or at least make it much easier to find) and people seem to like to have their games on the same platform (friend lists, integrated voice chat, etc.), but that comes at a very real price. They could just decide to advertise and get people to DL their launcher/client from their own site - but that could come at it's own costs in infrastructure, hardware, software, interwebs bandwith and manhours.
A 30% cut would be pretty nuts considering how many tiny indie titles steam has been hosting for years now. I hope it is not that high, but whatever agreements they usually have seem to work out even for tiny one man studios.
Personally I would love to see MWM give us steam as an option.
Release on Steam ... and get lost in the noise.
Seriously, have you had a look at how many games get released on Steam on a DAILY basis? Nobody has time to keep up with all of that. The sheer volume of releases on Steam is the proverbial "drinking from a fire hydrant" type of affair.
My point being that staying towards the top of the list on Steam (so as to get noticed by more players) is approaching Fool's Errand levels of insanity.
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[i]Verbogeny is one of many pleasurettes afforded a creatific thinkerizer.[/i][/center]
What most MMOs these days seem to do is release on their own website and also on steam, with separate launchers. One of the reasons is so that players get the option of having the steam overlay if they want it, or not having it if they don’t. Another is the steam version gives players the option to use their steam wallet for cash shop purposes, while the non-steam version can only use credit cards or services like PayPal.
Steam is not the only platform out there. But it does have an active modding community, and the Devs said they will allow mods.
This just might be the perfect fit.
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One way or another, the game needs to be hosted and whatnot in order for any of us to be able to actually log on and play it. Whatever they have to do to make that happen, I'm for it. HOPEfully, the people who have been working hard actually coding the game up and making assets get paid in the end for their efforts, which so far have been pretty damn good, and they deserve some kind of ultimate reward for that.
R.S.O. of Phoenix Rising
No they don't need different launchers. Valve has made the Steam integration components (a.k.a steam_api.dll) smart enough to check for and only load if the game is launched through the Steam client. I have seen steam_api.dll be included for installations done "outside" of the Steam client, and even if Steam wasn't installed at all.
The thing I would like to see most if they do add Steam support would be to connect my Steam account and MWM account so that if I launched it through Steam I wouldn't have to actively log in in the game launcher.
Ahh, ok. I’ve never looked at the files to compare steam/nonsteam versions of anything.
Yeah, linking the accounts would be good. Maybe they could work that so steam wallet can be used regardless of launch type?
Linked accounts and automatic updates are a big draw of using steam, absolutely. If MWM really wanted to leverage steam they could also include an ability to integrate with steam's friend list, voice chat, and other features, but automatic updates and sign in are definitely two of the biggest. It would also make it easy to monetize expansion content, cash shop bundle deals, and similar stuff. Finally, steam is very popular with PC gamers and that seems to be the core market MWM is going for.
The concern of getting lost in the noise is kind of the opposite of what would happen to MWM's project I would hope. Steam has "coming soon" sections and actively tells players about new things (if they enable that) especially if they are related to stuff that player has previously bought or flagged as something they liked. High profile stuff regularly gets to their front store page and players get notified of it. I don't know if valve does this based on level of interest in a title, advertising money from publishers, a combination, or something else in addition to those, but they definitely do it. I do know that this treatment is not at all limited to AAA titles. Small studio titles regularly get this treatment as well.
Advertising is something MWM has done none of in recent times as far as I can tell, and with steam's large userbase even if they had to pay to get notifications and front page access it would not be a poor investment of marketing resources. At least once the game is ready to go public.
Getting lost among other games comes down to marketing hype. This is a concern regardless of distribution platform(s) used.
Wasn't there the question of Steam needing the game to run off of a game controller (i.e. like XBox or PS4 controller and not mouse and kb)? I thought that was one of the things that made Steam a non-starter at some point. I could be remembering things wrong, or it could be different now than it was then, it's been a while.
R.S.O. of Phoenix Rising
that would be a killer for any deal.
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I don't have Steam. Are there any games on Steam now that absolutely cannot be played on a game controller and must have a kb and mouse? Also, some game systems do allow you to plug in a kb and mouse anyway, don;t they? How common is that among modern game systems that run Steam?
R.S.O. of Phoenix Rising
I think there's some non controller compatible games on Steam. But I'm not entirely sure.
"Let the past die. Kill it if you have to."
These days the newer games on steam has a large variety of controller compatible games, or if you like it can be played with a mouse and keyboard all natural options with nothing special needed. However if you want to play very old games they offer, from the early 90's for example, it's keyboard only and you'll need a 3rd party key remaper like "GZDoom" to allow for modern configurations.
But for the most part keyboard or controller has become quite versatile depending on the title.
W̖e͙͈ͅ'r͜e̞̬͇̩̩̟̰ ͕̰̘̜à͕̭̝͍̫̺̠l̫͙͔̠ͅl̫ ̮̪͞ḿ̻͓͇a̠̖̼̙͓̮̫d̨̘̙͇ ̥̮͚͚͓h̪̣̲̭̰͡e͠r̵̭̼͍e̝̖͍̼̠̯.͎͠
I use a Nostromo (or whatever Razer has renamed it three times now) gamepad for all my Steam games and haven't had any problems, if that's any help.
I don't think steam specifies what kind of controller your game can use at all, I've seen all sorts on steam. They have different sections in the store for games that specifically require VR hardware, but that is just to tell a potential buyer that the game won't be very useful unless they have that.
Steam is just distribution platform (and communication, and other things) but it doesn't put requirements on hardware. While valve sells hardware they don't require it to use their platform. You can run steam on Linux or mac for example. Any hardware you want to hook up to control your games is fine as long as the game supports it. That is totally up to the developers of the game itself.
I know I've played a couple games on steam that utilize dance pads for example.