How sad. At the time of backing, GOG was refusing to sell any indie game that didn't prove itself on Steam (or at least these I was interested in for some time), so it was kind of no brainer I use Humble/Steam key the day it became available.

Well, I got DRM-free and Steam, so I can hardly complain.

I'm not sure that's a bad thing? between Steam, Desura and the various bundles there is an overwhelming amount of rubbish out there, GOG filtering some of it is quite helpful.

I'm sure the delay for some of the better titles reaching GOG is sometimes (often?) the choice of the publisher or dev preferring DRM or exclusives elsewhere.

I think it was one of these things that made GOG stagnating. They refused to upgrade forum and downloader, support OS that everyone else was already supporting and wanted to be cool about new releases and be No.2 on the market but at the same time they kept waiting for other shops to test waters and attracts customers with something innovative.

Like I said somewhere on this forum I am not surprised. Their lets-play-it-save strategy just made me to not spend money on new releases continuously through the year as I used to but only handful during these 80%/85% sales because I have already got it elsewhere for cheaper and sooner with extra stuff.
This is something I know because a month or two ago I decided to calculate how much I actually spend and at what rate and what median price I paid. It wasn't just my weird feeling.

And no, I know at least 3 developers that were refused by GOG despite already doing well as opposed to some titles hand-picked by the website.

No hard feelings. In the end, it is GOG's loss because I am a customer who prefers giving my money to them over other providers but their current business model often doesn't make it to be a reasonable choice.
With Linux support and Galaxy I have hope that their attitude will change.

Let's not discuss such things on release news page of new game from a new developer :).

Fair enough. I haven't really tracked the releases in any meaningful way but I get the feeling GOG is at least increasing the rate of releases (I'm definitely investigating more of them more deeply than I used to) and with Galaxy + a few of the website tweaks that have been happening it seems like a very positive overhaul is coming.

I agree with you when it comes to concept art and so on. However, when it comes to soundtracks, I believe they are separate because, usually, these little studios don't have a full-time composer in their lineup, so they have to pay someone external to work on the soundtrack. This means that the studio itself is not the owner of the music, so every time you want to buy a piece of the game's music it's separate because you're pretty much paying an artist for his or her or their (copyrighted, probably) work.

Finished The Witcher just now. I think I can discuss most salient points without spoiling, so here we go. :)

Story - Well done, as you might expect from a game that is derived from a rich set of written tales. A student of history and/or mythology will spot where certain borrowings occur (such as the Grand Master of the Order being a parallel of the real Grand Master of the Knights Templar, Jacques de Molay). Nowt wrong with that, it adds to the verisimilitude.

Exploration - Locations are distinct and well made. The sense of immersion is strong, at least environmentally. The scripted NPCs are fleshed out, and they do a good job of giving different personalities to the somewhat limited citizen models. There is an awful lot of running back and forth though, and by the end of the game I was running past monsters just because I didn't feel like fighting every twenty yards in the wild.

Combat - Also well done, and more tactical than your average button-masher/mouse-clicker RPG. You do better when you select the appropriate weapon and technique for the foes you are engaging. Combat magic generally fits in smoothly too, and you can pause in order to change tactics or use potions. One downside of combat is that it can be hard to select a target during those times when you are mobbed. And occasionally I seemed to be unable to use magic, in spite of appearing to have all the levels up where they need to be. Some enemies stun you in different ways, and it's not always clear when you are suffering those effects. The other comment I have about combat is that you can acquire weapons that you use without witcher techniques, but I never even tried any of them. Didn't see the point.

Magic - There are five magical disciplines to master, but two of them are so powerful that I just upgraded them to the max and never really dealt with the remaining three. Which is a shame, because I can imagine it would have been more tactically interesting to use each in its fashion. Nothing is preventing you from doing so, but at the same time it can be tempting to fall back on your nuclear options.

Crafting - Potions are important to a witcher, especially in major battles. You also craft weapon oils (for combat effects) and bombs (which also have many different effects). You can hold a lot of ingredients, but need to make sure you also have the required bases to mix the components into. Crafting can only be done at a fireplace (or designated restpoint), as can distributing your skill tokens. One of the interesting effects of potions is that they have toxicity levels, so stacking up on them can lead to negative side effects. So you can't just slam health/mana potions as in other RPGs, you have to account for more realistic metabolic consequences.

Smithing - There is also some modest weapon smithing, in which you can make a meteorite iron sword from three different kinds of ore, and brand your silver sword with a selection from three different kinds of runes. There are also special named versions of both swords which you can find or obtain at certain points. There are a few armour upgrades to find or buy as well, but overall The Witcher is not a weapon-loot game where you find yourself picking from three-dozen slightly different Holy Epic Legend blades you've found along the way.

Morality - Morality isn't black-and-white in this game, which also brings it closer to real life. You decisions often have real consequences in the story branches, as well as with your relationships with other characters. This brings me to...

Romance - There is a major romance component, and decisions to be made surrounding said romance. This adds emotional weight to the storyline, and carries consequences as well. There is also a peripheral "hooking up" game, where you try to end up in bed with certain characters and general NPCs. It's equal parts saucy and silly, but you can easily go through most of the game without it too.

Overall - The game is a mixture of open world and linear plot. There is a central set of stories which impel things forward, and the game is divided into Chapters, which when completed mean there is no going back. But within each chapter you have a large degree of freedom and can pursue as many goals as you like without a time constraint. The last chapter, and particularly the epilogue, were a bit cutscene heavy for my tastes, and the revelation of the mastermind behind it all was not as impactful as it could have been had they started fleshing it out earlier in the game. But apart from minor quibbles like that, I found it a good gaming experience and time well spent. Certainly one of the better RPGs I've played in a long while.

Congratulations :) extremely proud to see a game from India release here , hope you have good sales and continue to make better games.

I hope that statement from Rinu is not 100% accurate.

it IS a bad thing because:

* If they're proven on Steam, then the peak of their sales are already over.
* If they're proven on Steam, then the game has been out on the market for a while now
* Related to the two previous points, it's likely that we the GOG community/consumers already own the game, and probably DRM-free too, since Indies tend to be in the first place.

I remember when GOG started getting into the indie game thing, and they had preorders/orders available for games that were launching everywhere at the same time. Given that choice, I went GOG. I got Legend of Grimrock (which I think GOG did an amazing job of marketing) and Tiny and Big Grandpa's Leftovers among others, because I had the choice to pick the GOG version.

I believe in curating your game offerings, but I hope that the standard won't lead to: "Let's wait to see how this game does on other sites first, before offering it on GOG".

This may be memorable. Wishlisted for now.