I gotta say I'm beginning to like this dev/pub, no discount whatsoever since release, ~15 months ago
It's true that it was discount on ssteam but only 33% off.
Kudos to them for the courage to go against the wave :)

Maybe in 20-24 months the game will still be without discount but it'll have the price reduced from 15 to 10 usd or something.

This shows strong attitude from a developer that knows the quality and thus the firm price for this game :)

I don't think many people have a problem with the dev not offering a discount or only offering a small one. The issue people are having is that they are only offering a discount on Steam. I won't give them credit for having the "courage" to only discount on Steam.

I wouldn't expect a price reduction anyway. A price reduction is worse than a discount from a pricing and valuation perspective.

I think the game doesn't do "limited lives" at all. And you won't have to replay levels you have already completed ( unless you'd like to, to look for secrets you missed -- the game isn't entirely linear, so you can go back and forth between levels, or do some optional things if you're stuck on a main level ). Levels can be relatively long, but as I said, there's many checkpoints along the way, and stages can probably be completed in a few minutes once you know the layout and enemy placement.

Overall, this is probably one of the best games of the genre, so if you want to play some old-school style Jump'n'Runs you might as well start with this one.

From a customer point of view, I personally like reasonable base prices ( including base price reductions over time ) much better than ridiculous 80+% limited time discounts.

In the past there were several situations where I really wanted to try a game, but decided against it because the base price was unreasonably high. I would have made a purchase at about 50% off, but instead had to wait for the next promo to buy it at 80% off or so. Less money for the dev/publisher, they had to wait for the purchase, and I had to wait to finally try the game, even though I would have been willing to buy it sooner at a ( reasonable ) higher price. Lose/Lose all around.

The fact that so many people insist on heavy discount percentages only led publishers to release their games at bloated base prices, so they can afford to discount them 90% off later on and still make a profit, while everyone who just wants to purchase the game at a "normal" price has to wait.

Agreed! It's well worth the money and the devs have been amazingly consistent with updates and content.

Shovel Knight has been on my wishlist for a long time. Don't ask me why. It's not like I was really waiting on a discount or anything, even though I was curious to see if there was going to be one today.

Fuck it! I haven't bought a game since Bethesda's arrival on GOG, so I think it's time to spoil myself (some more). I'll just view it as a 'good job on finding a decent job so quickly' gift to myself. :)

"

Niggles
Jun 19 2015

Hi
I was just wondering. Why is there a sale of your game on Steam (and it has happened a few times) but there is never a sale of the game on gog.com during their sales?.

thanks
Nigel
Yacht Club Games
Yacht Club Games
Jun 27 2015

We try to do sales as little as possible, so even agreeing to a steam sale takes a bit of debate and internal discussion which can distract from the making of the game. Any time we've done a sale, it's typically been on only one platform at a time, as a result. Sorry for the missed opportunity! We'll do one eventually!
"

Thought i posted this before. Oh well.

I'll join in. Ahem...

MUH DISCOUNTS!!!!!!!!!!!11111111111111112345

Yeah, I remember seeing you post this somewhere. 1/4 year later I find it just as patronizing.

----

Anyways, sorry to all for dominating the conversation in here. I've unfavorited the thread and likely won't think of the game again for quite some time....

That's where I'll disagree with you. A price reduction is permanent. A discount is temporary and limited. Having a game on sale 3 or so days out of 365 in a year vs a permanent sale of 33%? If I were the product owner, I'd take the discount every time.

These guys seem to take the "suggested" retail price to heart. They believe their game is worth $15. Based on that, my personal feeling is that they're not going to think it's worth any less just because 2 years have passed.

I tried to buy this game, but GoG checkout broke after I try to buy the third Pinata.

Guess GoG want me to save money.

I understand your perspective. I'm simply looking at it from the other side. When you do pricing, you have to deal with anticipation and valuation. It's exactly like you say. It's a game of psychology. The customer expects a high discount. They value it. If something is 80% off, a lot of time it touches that part of the brain that screams "great deal" and they want to buy it just because of that.

As someone who is selling a product, you have to understand that creating the perception of value is very important in selling your product, so you don't lower the regular price, you increase the discount. Meanwhile, if someone decides that they absolutely have to have your product when it's not on sale, you get the double bonus of selling it then at that high base price. The minute the base price is lowered it's like you've put the game on permanent discount, but you're not acknowledging it. And what happens on the customer end? They'll *still* wait for it to be on discount before they make a purchase.

I know what you're saying, but you're in the minority of people who see through the situation. You have to sell to the majority though.

Regardless, in this particular situation, the devs seem to believe more like you. They have listed the price of their game at exactly what they believe it is worth and are very reticent to discount it at all. I respect that as well. As soon as GOG gets the 33% discount that they sold it for on Steam a few times, I'll be making my purchase.

What exactly is tottaly free about this ?

Pretty much. I don't like it, but that's just they way it is. It's ridiculous, because most would probably rather buy the same game when it's 90% off a 50 dollar base price, rather than 50% off a 10 dollar base price, even if it results in the same end price. Seems like some people don't even look at the resulting price, and instead only focus on the discount percentage. "Wow, I'll save so much money!"

Most base prices for GOG games are actually quite reasonable in my eyes, but there's a few specific publishers which clearly use this strategy of exaggerated base prices, so they can apply larger discounts. Not even sure who to blame for this, since the publishers only react to the customer behavior, just as the customers react to these pricing tactics. It's a nasty cycle, but I'm not sure it can get much worse at this point ( aside from more publishers and devs using the same tactics ) since we're already at a point where 85+% discounts ( and matching base prices ) are a frequent occurrence.
Everything... if you own a copy of the base game.

That "free for everyone" is probably not the best choice of words. :P