Upcoming Releases -- 2014

THESE ARE NOT OFFICIAL RELEASE DATES. THEY ARE ESTIMATES AT BEST.

Follow us for updates! (Until we announce something on one of these channels, it’s not official.)

Unnatural: Released 1/3.
Tin Star: Released 2/21.
Trial of the Demon Hunter: Released 3/28.
Choice of the Rock Star: Released 4/4.
NOLA is Burning: Released 5/2.
Neighbourhood Necromancer: Released 5/16. You’re a dorky young teen in suburban Scotland who discovers a way to command the dead. Prepare to take vengeance of your neighbors, schoolmates, and the town that has made your pubescent years so miserable!
Planetary Quarantine: Released 5/16.
Mecha Ace: Released 6/13. You are the rebel pilot of a Mecha in the far future.
Heroes Rise: HeroFall: Released 7/11.
Life of a Mobster: Released 7/11.
Fatehaven: Released 8/8.
Path of Light: Released 8/15.
Sword of the Elements: Released 9/5.
Gangs of Old Camp: Released 9/12.
Yeti’s Parole Officer: Released 9/26. What happens when aliens across the galaxy get caught committing crimes? Why, they are sent to Earth for the duration of their sentences. You are their (human) parole officer, responsible for keeping these interstellar miscreants out of the headlines until they have served their time and can be sent back home.
Thieves’ Gambit: The Curse of the Black Cat: Released October 17th. You are the world’s greatest thief. Or, second best, anyway. When the Duke of San Castellano purchases the famed—and cursed—jewel, the Black Cat, you find yourself incapable of resisting the urge to make it yours.
Divided We Fall: Released October 17th. Spanish Civil War.
The Ascot: Released December 5th. The XYZZY award-winner.
Psy High: Released December 12th. December. Something’s afoot at your high school. Negotiate teen cliques, investigate eldritch horrors, and most terrifying of all…ask someone to prom!
Creatures Such as We: December 12th. By Lynnea Glasser. Won 2nd place in IFComp 2014. A meditation on game design and romance.
Choice of Robots: Released December 19th. You’re a brilliant scientist working on robots and the development of artificial intelligence in the near future.
The Last Monster Master: Released December 22nd. You are a trainer of monsters in a fantasy world.
Silent Gear: Released December 29th. You are an elite soldier in a dystopian future.
Somme Trench: Released December 29th. You are a British soldier during the Battle of the Somme.

Please don’t review games on this thread. Start their own threads.

Because someone asked me, to clarify: Hosted Games go on this list once they enter the publishing queue, meaning once we’ve received a full copy of the game. HG WIPs won’t show up on this list.

Also, please keep chatter on this thread to a minimum.

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@MarvelousMatty @BAPACop Rock Star is an official game, Demon Hunter is a hosted game. Official games get announced via the mailing list, hosted games don’t. If Rock Star and Demon Hunter get released simultaneously, Demon Hunter will be mentioned in Rock Star’s mailing list and gain more attention than it would if it was released separately.

@Apollo_FNR But… why? Why is releasing them on Apple and Google at the same time important? Are the Apple users going to not buy it because it’s been somehow tainted?

@DSeg …huh? Either a game is important enough to announce or it’s not. If they’re so adamant about announcing Demon Hunter then they should change their policy and do so, not continually delay it just because. Besides, if they’re not supposed to announce Hosted Games, then isn’t putting it on the mailing list a violation of that policy?

In short: Because it’s better for the sales to release them at the same time

Or longer:

@Samuel_H_Young I belive I did get an e-mail about Tin Star, saying it was the longest interactive novel ever or something to that effect and I don’t believe any other game. Don’t believe there were any other games in it, though I don’t have the e-mail anymore to check.

@Nocturnal_Stillness Unnatural and Burn(t) are both Hosted Games, so that would be even worse. They must have had an e-mail too because I knew about their releases but never check the blog.

@BAPACop
I refer to Dans explanation from the earlier linked thread:
“Concretely, App Store rankings consider your downloads within the last 4 days to compute ranking. So if you get 1000 downloads on opening day, that is much better than getting 500 downloads on day 1 and then 500 downloads on day 2.”

If you advertise it without Apple, those users will feel cheated because the others have it. If you don’t advertise it but keep it available, you are taking away from the Day 1 sales, which affects the games position in the ranking.

Easiest solution? Take away the announcement thread with the dates (thus noone can complain if the schedule is changed) and just release the stuff when it’s ready all in one go.
Personally, I’m already grateful that they post the estimated dates and just remain patient.

Anyway, it’s still a shorter wait than Game of Thrones Season 4, Dragon Age Inquisition or the third book of the Kingkiller Chronicles :wink:

I’m starting to understand why Telltale aren’t so quick to share information on release dates. Perhaps COG are best giving etas then the release date when they’re sure like Telltale? It might cause complaining but I think it’s better than the alternative.

Any case, no biggie at all, but I have been checking quite often to see if they’d been released. :wink: Only stopped when I saw the thread here.

Must admit the problem with Apple makes me worry if I do ever release anything too. They seem very fussy as to what they’ll accept. At least that’s my impression anyway.

@DavidGil Yes, these release dates aren’t supposed to be official. That’s why we don’t announce them on the blog or twitter or anything like that.

@BAPACop I’ll put a disclaimer at the top of the thread.

@BAPACop The reasons are because we’re trying to maximize Sam’s revenue. Do you want him to make money off of his game? If so, please believe us that a) coordinated releases between platforms are important and b) that his being on the mailer with Rock Star is important as well.

@jasonstevanhill I have no desire to take away the author’s revenue, but I do wonder why a) non-coordinated releases would have any effect whatsoever on the size of your potential customers on individual platforms and b) why Demon Hunter can’t be released without a second game on the mailer when Tin Star was released on its own.

  1. We don’t usually send emails for Hosted Games. We send them for Choice of Games, and as a courtesy to HG authors, sometimes add them to the announcement of a COG title.

  2. In order maximize sales, it’s important to concentrate as many as possible in a short period. More sales in a short period drives games up the platform charts. When people see games on the charts, they buy the game, driving it further up the charts, creating a virtuous cycle. Moreover, when games are released on one platform but not another to which we usually publish, it invariably annoys customers. Especially if they see, say, an article about a game, but the game isn’t out for them to purchase. People have a limited attention span. If they see an article, and they can’t buy it, they may forget about it until something else reminds them. The point being, the sales will be diffused over time, and not contribute to the chart-topping efforts.

Sorry about the earlier message, @jasonstevanhill , where I suggested treating the release dates as etas. I forgot about the message at the top of the original post, or must have skimmed it. I know I didn’t look at it before posting what I did anyway.

But I think leaving it a day/till the proper day before changing the release date is still not ideal. Personally, it doesn’t bother me. I’m unemployed and it’s very quick to check the web anyway to see if it’s been released. So, it’s not like I’m put out much at all. Just a matter of disappointment really when you look forward to something and find it’s not released.

But my thoughts are that it might be best stating ‘Choice of etc.’ to be released between 13th-27th of such and such. Something along those lines anyway which gives you a fair amount of wriggle room and then give the exact date once it’s certain.

Then again, I don’t know how the app stores work. I know that, by going off what Telltale says, they can’t give release dates sometimes until a day or two before. I know this can irritate people too. I’m dreading appeasing the app stores to be honest if I do release anything. :slight_smile:

PS: By the way, I can see where Jason’s coming from with regards to Tin Star getting an announcement. I’m not meaning to put down Sam’s work down by any means and I haven’t read it yet, though I’m sure it’s good and will purchase a copy, but Sam’s work is around 80,000 words, I think? Whereas Tin Star is over 1.3 million words. I think it’s obvious how much work has been put into Tin Star. :wink:

Rock Star still hasn’t been approved by Apple, so again, until something gets posted on Twitter or the blog, don’t take the release dates as gospel.

@Cataphrak

The title of your game kind of tells me what it is about though. I mean it sounds like I’m gonna be in some kind of Battletech or MechWarrior style game. I run around in a mecha and shoot missiles at people…oh and I’m a pretty good one since I’m an Ace. I mean that’s what it sounds like.

If it’s about being an elderly man or woman (oh the relationship possibilities!) trying to wheel their walker to the grocery store and laundromat, I’m gonna be sad.

However I would like to know a lot more about it! :smiley:

FYI Heroes Rise: The Prodigy and Heroes Rise: The Hero Project are now available on Steam.

Go buy them if you can. Even if you hate the games. If they do well, Valve will let us port the rest of our library to Steam.

I’m curious as to what exactly does ‘pending release’ mean? Does it mean that, for example, Path of Light might be released before HeroFall?

@Rebelmaiden
It means that it’ll be released when convenient, basically. HeroFall would take priority, as it’s an official title.

People. Please keep chatter on this thread to a minimum. I dislike having to continually delete the posts here.

Is this officially the busiest release year for CoG when it comes to the number of games, especially for the Choice brand? Or is that just my head deceiving me?

No, it will be the most prolific year yet. That’s why we hired @ladybird, to help with editing projects.

Last year, I think we published eight games? We’ve pushed five so far, and I think we’ll have at five more this year. Certainly four, maybe six.

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