You probably know Age of Decadence - considered one of the most interesting and complex cprgs ever made. Well, there are really smart guys behind that game and they sometimes share their analysis and business strategies.

Here is post from IronTower forum, showing their current strategy, it's roots and consequences. There are sale and revenue statistics for Age of Decadence and Dungeon Rats, but also:
- Shadowrun,
- Blackguards,
- Legend of Grimrock and
- The Banner Saga.

I've found the article fascinating. It breaks some common myths about game development in general and indie in particular. Some facts are really surprising.

Now article received also some answers from Feargus Urquhart, Obsidian Entertainment.

Isn't it interesting?

[links edited, gog forum sucks]

a bit old now, but you might find it interesting - https://www.gog.com/forum/general/game_postmortems/page1

Interesting. Thanks for the link.

Interesting, thanks. I'm looking forward to their "New world" rpg (will have to buy a new laptop for that...but that's still a few years in the future after all). Only thing that bothers me is the change to "skills improve by use"...haven't played a game that uses such a system, not sure I'll like it since it seems somewhat constricting.

In Stonekeep such solution made me press the button and leave the room to increase my skills ;) But you know, it's IronTower, they shouldn't screw this up, I think.

Regarding The New World - I've followed the links and the gallery of concept arts made me really want to play the game :D Lucky me - I've got Age of Decadence in my backlog ;)

Yes, "The New world" sounds interesting...from what I've read about it, religion is going to play some role in it (other philosophies/ideologies as well), and they're also planning an innovative stealth system as an alternative to solving quests by talking or combat...definitely something to look forward to.
So you haven't played through AoD so far? I think I've seen most of the content and most of the endings...there were some things I didn't like that much (the setting is a bit too relentlessly bleak imo, and some parts of the background story don't make complete sense), but it does have elements of pure brilliance.

The numbers ofvthe 4 games mean that the first part of each series sold better than the second? So people probably don't want "more of the same" but a new idea/experience?

Well, I've only finished Dungeon Rats. It was my preparation for Age of Decadence, because I've tried AoD demo and died very quickly ;) I think the game is a bit demanding and at the moment I lack of time and focus. I have not more than 1h a day for gaming (and not always free of distractions), which makes it quite complicated to play such a complex titles as crpgs... I think it may also have something to do with people's backlogs. From the psychological point of view it's rather easy to make a decision to buy a new game "to play someday". It may be harder to spend money for the game if you still haven't even installed the previous one in a series.
There are statistics in this article showing that may be a huge gap between those who buy and those who actually play the game...

OK, but let's be honest - it was "Nice Guy" difficulty level or something like that ;)
Regarding AoD - in terms of fights it may be easier (there is no way to avoid them in DR, indeed), but there is still language barrier, a lot of characters, quite complicated story etc. All of these call for focus and a lot of time to fully enjoy the gaming experience...

Sure, I didn't want to rush you into playing Aod...take your time with it to enjoy it, it's something to be savoured :-)
I assume you already know that hybrid characters aren't that easy to play, so maybe play as a pure talker or fighter when you eventually get around to playing it.

Yes, I was warned that it matters where you spend your xp points and that you need to specialize to survive. Perhaps you can answer one fundamental question - is it possible to finish the game without fighting? It's crucial for me, because all crpgs I've played, which promised me to allow finishing game without properly built killing skills and stats, lied and smashed me at some point...

Yes, absolutely. The merchant questline is designed for playing as a pure talker, you don't have to do any fights in that questline. And iirc you can also play through the praetor questline(s) without doing any fights.
The assassin and imperial guards questlines obviously feature lots of fighting. The thief questline also has a few fights you have to do, but you have a lot of control of how combat-heavy you want your playthrough to be.
Granted, I think the game is more fun with combat, because the combat system is pretty good, and also a large part of the game (there are some quests you won't even get to see if you're playing without combat, whereas there isn't much optional content apart from the main questlines for pure talker characters). But it's definitely possible to beat Aod without a single fight.

Wow, that's really interesting. And also awesome. Sounds like replaying the game with another character may give you totally different experience. Thank you for detailed explanation.
The whole discussion whets my appetite for playing the game (:

Yes, exactly, there are basically six completely different questlines in the game (merchants, assassins, imperial guards, thieves, House Daratan, House Aurelian), with multiple branches in each of them. Aod isn't that long as a game, but it offers lots of replayability, really cool concept.