Thoughts from the community?

[Ry Vor]

Outstanding.  Impressive, young Skywalker. 

I think just the story of Dwarves vs Amazons stands out as distinct from what most would expect.  Also playing up Stormgate and the Dwarves focus on mountains, economy and building and the Amazons on mobility and the plains and probably religion.

How you couch this in the marketing will be interesting.  Maybe as a prelude to some sample turn results accessed by link?

Strylian, you continue to impress.

[Strylian]

Outstanding.  Impressive, young Skywalker. 

I think just the story of Dwarves vs Amazons stands out as distinct from what most would expect.  Also playing up Stormgate and the Dwarves focus on mountains, economy and building and the Amazons on mobility and the plains and probably religion.

How you couch this in the marketing will be interesting.  Maybe as a prelude to some sample turn results accessed by link?

Strylian, you continue to impress.

Thanks Rick. I wanted to incorporate the rules of the game as well as the special abilities of the kingdoms into the story. Try to create a real narrative inside the game. My intention is to run on FB as a long post. The idea is that instead of having an ad that is in your face "Buy from Me" we can tell a story. People who are attracted to the story and read it through are very good candidates for Alamaze players and are likely to respond well to what they see n the landing page. They will come to the game with realistic expectations of how the game is played and how it gets started etc.. so they won't be disappointed that it isn't another video game. Also, only people who are on a desktop will receive it. That way we are not wasting time on people who can't play the game even if they wanted to.

I got the idea from listening to some copywriting podcasts. I am working on a video right now that is short but will make it clear exactly what Alamaze is and how it is played.

[Strylian]

Exceptional

Thanks Rellgar

[Ashgar75]

Strylian,

That is awesome work. Very well written.

So well written, that it makes you feel bad for those Amazonian Women. hahahaha, or maybe I just feel bad because I am the one who played the Amazons and screwed up totally eliminating all that great work in the early turns. Just so you know, I honestly went for the artifact and had no intention of going after you except that I uncovered 4 of your PC's on the march. Made it very tempting.

Seriously, you have a knack for what your doing and I love the work and results that are coming out of your efforts.

[Strylian]

Strylian,

That is awesome work.  Very well written.  

So well written, that it makes you feel bad for those Amazonian Women.  hahahaha, or maybe I just feel bad because I am the one who played the Amazons and screwed up totally eliminating all that great work in the early turns.  Just so you know, I honestly went for the artifact and had no intention of going after you except that I uncovered 4 of your PC's on the march.  Made it very tempting.  

Seriously, you have a knack for what your doing and I love the work and results that are coming out of your efforts.

Ohh I know, but my way makes for a better tale.. Don't take it literally..lol

[RELLGAR]

I was curious about what you said, only people  on a desktop will be able to play it. How is this so?

[Strylian]

I was curious about what you said, only people  on a desktop will be able to play it. How is this so?

I am able to specify the types of devices any ads run on. Since Alamaze is not really playable on a phone, I will concentrate my efforts on people who are using a desktop or a laptop.

[Strylian]

Hey guys, I just posted a short video to youtube and on the website. Its intention is to make sure players understand exactly what Alamaze is and how it is played before they enroll. I am hoping it cuts down on some of the confusion new players go through.

I had to kind of rush it since I leave for the boat tonight. I will probably make something a little more refined when I get home in a couple of weeks.

https://youtu.be/o46w4KaTcmg

[RELLGAR]

I was curious about what you said, only people  on a desktop will be able to play it. How is this so?

I am able to specify the types of devices any ads run on. Since Alamaze is not really playable on a phone, I will concentrate my efforts on people who are using a desktop or a laptop.

It is playable  on a phone and most definitely  playable  on a tablet which is the same. I have always played Alamaze on a tablet, never a P.C.

[Ry Vor]

I encourage you to click on the link and see what he has in the works.  It may surprise you in various ways.  For example, we are initially telling players in a visually stimulating way what Alamaze is not.  The purpose is to get players to have a beginning understanding of what Alamaze in fact, is.  Between the fast rocking Judas Priest One Shot at Glory and the animated text, and the quick tempo of the screens, it should hold attention.   Its not the final version, but again, strange as it might seem, with a big marketing effort, I really don't want hundreds of people signing up for accounts thinking its a typical video game and never actually playing Alamaze.  

On the subject of this thread, Thoughts from the Community, I want to get your opinion on a somewhat major change, or at least alternative way to start games.   A point has been made that Alamaze may perhaps be the only game that requires players to join a forum to start playing, and we do here internally see a number of players that get through the tutorial or even a Duel but never actually join a game.  They don't join the forum even though we are clear on that in the Welcome to Alamaze emails sent to each new account registration.  They may feel they shouldn't be required to do that.  We also saw an aborted attempt by four or five new (potential) players to create a game, presumably they know each other, but screwed up the game creation.

So the idea is that players can create games directly from a simplified Game Creator page, without the current draft process on the forum.  The Game Creator would be re-arranged, with emphasis on having a default game type which would be Steel, with the only option on diplomacy: Silent, Forum, or Full.   That's it.  No other decisions in the main section, always 72 hour turn around, fixed cities, exploratory, etc.  Somewhere below, the more esoteric options would be available, but likely only to Moderators, which would be a group of experienced players.  Even simpler would be no Game Creation, that the queue always has one Steel game in queue, or to ensure no more than one game is queuing at a time to accelerate games starting.

Next, with the default game created, is how to assign kingdoms and regions directly on the Game Creator.  Even as we all have seen here in the forum draft process, this can take several days to get the three stages of the draft completed.  Yes, all current players know all these things, but it is very strange to new players, who again, are used to just hitting "Start New Game" and then they are off and running in every other game they play.  So instead of a draft, in the default game creation, it would just be first come, first served to pick both kingdom and region.  I know this is not what you (current players) would find ideal, but it may be a way to actually get signups playing Alamaze, and it still allows the promise of Maelstrom in that you can play any kingdom in any region.   It is emerging that certain kingdoms in certain regions have an edge, but I don't think it is a major advantage.  Also, as mentioned, I will be adjusting both kingdoms and regions in the next update to address some of this. 

There could still be forum based games, where we do it like now with 12 players on a thread agreeing to a draft and then joining, just as now.

So in summary, we have a major marketing effort underway by Strylian (Nick).  We need to convert these account registrations into players, and to do that, between his videos and the actual process to get in a game, we have to make it easy for the players to get in a game, hopefully after completing the tutorial. 

OK, feedback?