I wish people would stop acting like there is a choice here. CoG has said they HAVE to do this.
We’re past the “Please don’t do it” stage.
We’re now at the “How do we make the best of this?” stage. I guarantee you every single writer firmly wants to help make the best of this. It’s in all of our self interests.
im of the mind that ómnibus apps work well for games like choices stories you play and others that have released chapters each week, but here we are talking about fully developed games not week or montly updates, considering that some of us having to install an ómnibus to play just 1 or 2 games can be a bit much if the App is big when it comes to having to update for games you may not like and also have the capacity to have this in your phone. I think both points can be considered , there is always pros and cons.
Not sure if this was already answered but I’d also like to know if this app works when you are offline?
The size of the app is 6.8 MB in the App Store but considering this is in a barebone state and they are planning to polish the UI, there is still a possibility that the base size will increased. By how much, probably depends how user friendly and polished we want it to be.
My only concern right now if we could play the downloaded app offline. XD
If you can play in-app purchases offline, like Part 2 of Zombie Exodus Safe Haven, then you’ll be able to play these offline.
If you download a lot of games, your app will use more data. If you don’t, it won’t.
do you have to update the App each time there is new games? thats what most worried me and the fact to have to be logged in to play, steam can be played offline yet still you have to connect online 1 so is pretty pointless .
Thank you for the clarification on this. =) I still hope for the success on this path.
@anon4518890 I am thinking that this will be like the Audible app when you try to look for a title, you need to be connected online but once downloaded there’s no need to connect.
So, I think you’re wrong, because I think you’re not seeing the potential upside.
I would be incredibly morose about this if I didn’t see a story where this is great for pretty much everyone. But I think there are two huge opportunities here.
(Now, @Eric_Moser might disagree with my reasoning; he’s already gestured towards this. But I think it will be a net positive.)
The first is that there will be “free-to-win” (FTW) games in both of the omnibus apps. For example, Choice of the Dragon and The Great Tournament. FTW games can have exponentially greater download numbers than pay-once-and-play (PAOP) titles. Players will download the omnibus apps in order to play these free games. The thing about these free games however, is that they’re going to be surrounded by other games that aren’t free. They’ll have the opportunity to play these POAP games (the standard trial end), potentially giving authors substantively more exposure than they previously had. It’s a whole new way to cross-sell titles.
Secondly, there will now be a story where advertising makes sense. Once we get a pretty omnibus (which we all know isn’t what we’ve released so far), we can try and put money into advertising and actually get a positive ROI. Up until now, there was no point in advertising: once someone paid their $3, there were basically no IAPs or other up-selling opportunities. And, because of competition in the mobile gaming space, we could expect to pay $20 or more PER INSTALL. Why would we pay $20 to sell a $3 game, which we only collect $2 from (and then have to pay royalties on)? However, with the omnibus apps, there are dozens and dozens of stories there; if a customer downloads it, they can spend $100, $200, maybe even $300 on the different games. While I’m not saying that we will be able to “crack” the advertising-ROI-puzzle, there’s a much more compelling argument with a pretty omnibus to pay $20 for an install.
So, between the “natural” install base—thanks to the free games—and a new reason to advertise—because there’s potential for positive return there—I’m not nearly as downcast as you are. I’m actually quite excited about the omnibus for these two reasons. Yes, we have a long way to go with the UI/UX, but now that we have the technical issues out of the way (they were quite daunting and took Dan since October to address), we can start working on beautification and feature development.
you mean like just an App that help install games?
like they can make this App just download the games and install them, then after installing the game you want you can unninstall this App and continue to play those games you downloaded…that will certainly be the same as downloading the game from the App store 
(i think im ok with this app as long as i dont have to connect to this ómnibus to play a game i have installed in my phone )
Er no… From how the CoG phrase it, you need the app to play the games. I just used Audible as an example because that’s the closes thing I could compare it with based from personal experience. In Audible, I have to go online thru the app and search the audiobook I want, purchase it and then download it. Once done, I could listen to the audiobook offline using the app.
then is like steam, unless you can use this App without internet.
I can’t test this right now because I don’t have an Apple device, but I was curious if the omnibus knows what titles you’ve already purchased, and if so, are those titles ready to play right away or do they need any special setup?
Oh yes… I could access my downloaded audiobook no problem. No need to connect to the internet. I think this is what the CoG team is trying to do. Mary has already confirm few posts above.
I’m not sure what you mean. As we pointed out in the initial post, past purchases on Apple will not transfer to the omnibus at this time.
If you get the omnibus and buy games in it…you will have access to those games.
No, it’s not an installer. You need an omnibus app to play the games in the omnibus. If you buy a game then delete the omnibus, you will not be able to play it.
If you already own games, Apple has told us that older standalone games will not be deleted. However, you also cannot transfer past purchases into the omnibus at this time.
That’s what I mean. Must have missed that. Thanks for clearing that up. 
Yep. It’s basically Steam for CoG/HG stories.
But Steam can put omnibuses inside their library, and the omnibus puts stories inside their library. The actual stories are inside the omnibus, which is inside Steam.
So, if the omnibus makes its way to Steam, you’ll have to go to Steam to access the omnibus, and then access the omnibus to play a story…
Speaking of which, “We’ve heard you like apps…”
I am definitely pro ads-- just need to find a good uh… adder?
I know Serial Box is kinda related to CoG, and I vaguely remember there’s some sort of link, so maybe that would be an option?
Else adsense is a good option (unless there’s some sort of ban thing) and with the omnibus there’ll be tons of people on the main page.
And, as Eric said, we need to make the best of it.
So I have some suggestions:
-Sort by: , Rating (don’t have rating as default though!), Alphabetical, Price, Genre(?)
-Server sided verification: I know the whole thing that pirates will pirate regardless, and money isn’t lost as they won’t buy it, but it’s hella annoying to see a modded/ free download for a CoG game as like the 3rd result when typing “Name of game” + “apk”
-Ratings. I’m not sure how ratings work on the app store, but if people use a rating system you make in the omnibus, you can delete the bad/ unhelpful ratings (e.g. 1 star: costs money) ((which would be especially annoying when you can filter by price!))
I am curious though, say 1 game has a bug and that needs to be updated, will the entire app require an update? That seems like there’ll be a lot of updates
apps apps alriight i read you 
Then we have to make the writer walk the plank 
On a serious note, CoG can hold on updating all the fixes so they can do a “big update” which contains bugfixes for the stories you have. Or maybe, the update itself takes place inside the omnibus.