Is anyone else as cheesed off as I am that the soundtrack version only appears on Steam? I feel pretty ripped off, to be honest. $10 for a coffee game is well and good, but the fact that there isn't even the *option* of buying the soundtrack here means that I would have to also cough up money on Steam to get the soundtrack too.

I really, really miss the days when GOG didn't do launch releases so we didn't have to put up with this kind of crap.

Frankly, I'm not buying the whole "no modding features until later after the release" thing either. Seems more likely to me that this is an arrangement to lock the soundtrack away from casual copying.

It's essentially a couple of guys making a game. They don't exactly have the resources to do thing like modding and weren't really expecting the game to be all that popular anyways, so they didn't anticipate the demand. Not a big company, so don't expect as much. It's a simple, fun, deep game for a good price.

Heck, even lots of big studies focus on modding only after release :P Give it some time.

(And isn't this game like made by two people? Thats what I recall from Kickstarter)

Chill out, the soundtrack is available on Bandcamp too.

http://benprunty.bandcamp.com/album/ftl

And I'm pretty sure no mod support isn't some nefarious conspiracy to keep you from ripping the soundtrack, but the fact that it's literally just two people making this game.

Considering this project was crowdfunded through Kickstarter that means there was actually something called a budget.
Adding mod support takes a lot of time, from reworking the way the game works from scratch to at the very least making (and documenting) a way to load external resources. And would need a lot of testing to make sure the game doesn't horrendously crash and burn the instant someone loads something new into it.

I'm sure most of the people who funded the game through Kickstarter wanted the game sooner rather than later and waiting for mod support would likely annoy a bunch of people.

Yes the game could do with mods, that would be neat. More random encounter types. More shiptypes. Maybe more species and such. A lot of things could be done with mod support, but opening the game engine up to read custom assets and using them in as generic a way as is needed to actually do anything with mods, it takes a lot of time if the game hasn't been coded as an engine and the content as a mod in it's own right.

One of the reasons for using GOG is to be able to keep as things centralized.
I don't want to register on a dozens of sites and then wonder if I have bought this here or there.

I'm also pissed off that the complete OST is not offered in full.
I'll put this one on the wishlist instead :|

I would have preferred for GOG to have put a higher price tag on the game and include the complete OST.
Yes, I'm a sucker for complete sets.

Alternatively GOG should start supporting a DLC model.
Keep including all extras for old games, but allow a DLC buying model for new games.

Oh, wow, available on Bandcamp for only $1 more than the Steam soundtrack! See, this is precisely what I'm talking about.

I really, really don't buy the two-man team thing as being the reasoning behind the restriction. Number one, when you release something for profit, you expect it to sell. Number two, it's common practice for most indie games to release their soundtracks when they go DRM free or bundled. Number three, there are many other two-man indie mod teams out there that at least pay lip service to modification or opening up their content.

I feel absolutely terrible for being so disappointed because I think we need to support our indie programmers and artists, but I also have a well developed sense of justice and this isn't doing much for it.

If they prove me wrong and they eventually get into a Humble Bundle or Indie Royale or IndieFort and it turns out they release the soundtrack as a part of it, I'll finally be happy. Otherwise, it seems like the composer just wants to make a few extra bucks.

As it is, I'm still reasonably satisfied with the buy. I do think it's priced a smidgeon high for being a game that will last for around 10 hours of gameplay, but otherwise the soundtrack is just the big sticking point for me. Sticking point as in, "Here, sit on the end of this". It's just plain uncomfortable.

Serious question. Can you name one two man indie team that included mod support from launch? Obviously there are "many others" so it shouldn't be a problem. I mean, I write about indie games for a living and I can't name one, but they must be out there.

Or maybe the lack of mod support isn't a conspiracy to sell more soundtracks but is actually due to lack of resources, and maybe it's just normal that the majority of indie games don't include the soundtrack and sell it on Bandcamp instead, Humble Bundle being the exception.

If we include donation supported and free in the list, Dwarf Fortress was modifiable from launch, as were Orbiter and any number of non-Steam-based PC-based games. Bearing in mind that a fair few of these free projects use the exact same LGPL or permissive libraries, like SDL, Freetype, FMOD, etc., that paid ones do, there's a strange inversion preventing paid authors from having resources but free ones having no such restriction. (Don't get me too wrong. I hate straight-up GPL with a passion and think it needs to die a horrible, horrible death.) The paid example that first comes to mind is SPAZ, which was intending on being modifiable from the very beginning and only wound up cutting that off and reintroducing it because it proved unfeasible. And yes, music nice and accessible.

Anything Unity, Silverlight, or XNA-based is not usually going to be modifiable, because these systems are designed to resist reverse engineering by design. Most indies intended for console and phone distribution do tend to use these. But given the current medium under discussion, I figured we could rule these out.

I'll agree, at least, that a lot of paid independent games rule out modification. Hyperbole is kinda my thing. ;-) Again, the main issue is the simple lack of access to the soundtrack on the GOG version. Giving us a "sample" and expecting us to pay $5 for it on Bandcamp instead of either giving it to us as part of the bundle or including a soundtrack edition comparable to Steam is very much a middle finger in the middle of the seat.

For me buying FTL from GOG is not only cheaper: it's 10$ on GOG and 10€ on STEAM (it would translate to 13$ for this game - a 30% increase in price [if we like big numbers ;) ]), but yields me free stuff not found in other versions. That includes part of soundtrack. I would call it a good deal :]

From past GOG actions I would presume that if they could get us a free soundtrack w/o rising price significantly - they would do it. For me, existence of "Soundtrack sample" is just a proof that they try to get as much as they can.

Since selling -let's call them - DLC's is non-existent here on GOG, then willingly stripping a game from soundtrack is IMO not a valid marketing decisions, since you lower value of sealing product w/o introducing any way to compensate on that. I even think that GOG tries to do what they should do: increase value of selling product by introducing "freebies".

If not for marketing reasons, then for what GOG decided to not include soundtrack? They don't like us? Had a bad day? Don't like soundtracks?

Someone said, that whole soundtrack could be included with the game for a increased fee. Agree. However this would translate into game moving towards price range that could discourage potentiality buyers (like me) from acquiring product. For some (like me ;) ) soundtrack is not that important, and would not justify such high price.

What GOG could do? Well, introduce a FTL Soundtrack edition where soundtrack would be introduced. However, doing this would result in some problems for GOG and - I think - was not a necessity this time.

Gog has nothing to do with lack of soundtrack. It's a brand new game, not an old one, and the tendency is to sell the soundtrack separately with many brand new games. FTL is doing that, and throwing it in for free here would hurt their sales of the soundtrack elsewhere. Once the game is out for a while, the soundtrack will likely become a free addition.

thanks for the link :)

I do not get why you are so upset about this, although the soundtrack is so ace. Buy it on steam, most people should already have an account there. (well those who like gaming in general)

There are some tracks her on GoG, although only a few ones.

You don't have to register in any way to buy anything on bandcamp, go get it there, stop complaining. It's a new game, can't expect them to release the soundtrack for free . . .
Hell when was the last time you even got a free sample of a games soundtrack from a just released game?

I do understand your frustration, but a recent look at Ben Prunty's blog states that "The amazing sales for the FTL soundtrack have allowed me to afford health insurance for my girlfriend and myself. So, thanks fans!"

Which does not solve your problem, nor make gog right, but certainly makes an argument that not including the soundtrack meant that people who loved the music so much (myself included) would be motivated to buy the guy's album. And this is not some monstrously large company that is profiting here...