Universal [BETA] Gumslinger (by Itatake)

6 seconds. Short seems like an understatement.

 

I'm liking the concept! And can't wait to get my invite

 

I so wish this was fully premium experience. It’d be so neat. Looks super polished with great physics based fun. But there’s already some Starter pack offer at 2:57 removing interstitial ads (which indicates there’ll be optional ads on top of that, probably) and who knows what else. Well, there’s still hope that I’m wrong. Anyone already in beta to shed some light on monetizing?

 

It’s an Itatake game! So I immediately went for the Please Go Pro Forever pack at £11.99 which has all you need and not seeing any ads. Don’t tell anyone but it’s free at the moment so you can try it out but not forever.

 

@Asp so there’s a way to make the game fully premium? That sounds great! I didn’t have a chance to try it yet. I’m not in a beta. So all my concerns are based on the gameplay video above, thus hypothetical. But because of what I’ve seen there, I’m intrigued to know more.

 

That’s how it is in beta. Much could change by the time it’s released. Like their others, this is very much a casual game but with presentation second to none. Itatake have excelled themselves with quite literally fluid animation and some goofy sound design.

 

This is pure, hyper casual fun! So there are 2 types of IAP, packs and coins. So I'd buy the premium forever pack, but coin thing kinda turns me off, in any game. I wonder how hard the grind for coins would be if I just buy the pack. Also, you can purchase medi kits in between rounds for 100 coins, so that would make the game juuuust a bit p2w as well.

Nonetheless, I'm just enjoying being a whale since it's on beta, and having great time with it. Not a single negative comment on my side, besides IAP structure, but I get it.

It would be so amazing as an Apple Arcade title tho.

 

@bx59 I'm right there with you. Except it's not "just a bit pay to win" but full-fledged obvious and pure pay to win. Because if someone's able and willing to heal themselves between the rounds, it gives them over the top advantage, hence "pay to win". No matter how skilled I might be, if my health meter is 10% after 3-4 rounds, what chance do I get against someone who pays for full health bar? So, pay to win.

I don't like Premium pack price either. I mean, 13€ is too much. I understand the amount of content and everything, but it's mostly cosmetics. There's still coins, premium pack or not. Because of that it's never going to be "premium" game. But even if it was, 13€ is just too steep for my taste. I bought a ton of "expensive" games (expensive for iOS standards meaning around 10€ price range), but none of them had additional IAP for coins and all of them were worth hundreds of hours of fun.

And it pains me the game's F2P and P2W. Because it's a great casual fun. I love physics, especially soft body physics. This is pretty unique game and even though I believe it's not a proper multiplayer, it's still a lot of fun. And by not proper I mean, how does it even work? I'm ALWAYS on the left. Which means, other players are as well. I don't know if it works on some mirroring scheme or is there a different trick. Honestly I don't care because it's fun. Additional modes like skillshots are cool. Collecting different characters is nice addition (I love the plant), different weapons are (probably) fun too - I'm not that far yet and thanks to it's monetizing I probably won't be. The fact is, constant losing because I'm not paying for first aid kits between rounds is fun only to a certain point. After that point it starts to be frustrating.

Anyway, that being said, it's still incredibly unique and polished game with amazing soft body physics. If there wasn't that ever-present pay to win aspect hanging above each round, I'd consider paying Premium even though it feels steep and I don't believe there's any acceptable reasoning behind that. But it's all ruined by coins. But 100 coins for one first aid kit (that could possibly be 500 for one tournament if I buy it between each round), that's just ridiculous. But it might be just me. I don't play free to play games out of principle. So what do I know?

As @bx59 - if this was an Apple Arcade title, it'd skyrocket to the top 5 of my favorite games there. Too bad it's never gonna happen.

 

A simple like wouldn’t be enough so I just wanna say I’m with @macplash 100%.

 

@Itatake I appreciate you’re trying to do some coin balancing and looking for a fair solution that is not p2w, but until there’s this option, it will never be fair. Those who pay real money will benefit from it, the rest won’t. It’s as easy as that. I’d suggest to give each player one first aid kit at the beginning of a tournament. And it’s up to a player when he use it. After a first round or fifth. That’s up to each one’s strategy. Unused first aid kit may generate some bonus in the end in case of a win. Keeping coins in-game strictly for cosmetics. New characters and weapon skins and whatnot. That would be fair!

You didn’t react to the price of Premium pack. Is there any reasoning behind the 13€ price tag we may find acceptable? I’m curious to know. As an example, I got literally hundreds of hours in Dead Cells (I bought for 8€), I’m currently playing Battle Chasers Nightwar, so far 40+ hours in for a 3,49€ game on sale (10€ regular price), I got 50+ hours in Aces of the Luftwaffe bought in pre-order for 8€ (currently on sale for 2€). All these highly polished, rpg elements, a lot of strategizing etc. On the other hand there’s Gumslinger - a great casual soft body physics based PvP shooter. No matter how much could I possibly have with it, will it keep my attention for 50 hours? A hundred? Collecting new characters and Weapons is fine, but will it keep me interested for so long? And even if so, it’s more expensive than any of the games I mentioned above. I’m just trying to understand why you’d ask for 13€. How you see it. You don’t have to respond! It’s not like you’d have to explain yourself. I’m just curious and surprised, so I wanted to share my point of view on the matter. Does it make any sense?

 

@Itatake okay. Alright. That actually sounds great! You know that if I didn’t like the game I wouldn’t bother to write any of this, right? I’m just trying to share my experience from the costumer’s perspective, opposite to the developer’s point of view. I understand you could justify the monetizing if you wanted, but I’m really glad you’re willing to listen and actually do something about it. Seriously, your approach is impressive. What an exemplary developer! Thank you. I’m looking forward to these final adjustments and tweaks.

 

I assume this was changed? I found the offer in-game. It’s (much more reasonable) 5,49€ for me, but I’m pretty sure buying IAPs while in TestFlight actually doesn’t work. Not to mention it won’t be restorable in the full version even if it somehow worked.

The thing is, I’m past level 1, but it looks like I’m not able to progress further without purchasing the rest. Which I’m willing to do, but as I said, it won’t work in full version. And it doesn’t say it’s free at the moment. It asks me to confirm purchase of 5,49€. So what do I do here?

 

@macplash any IAP on test flight is in sandbox environment, so whale it out! you’ll be entering your password but won’t be charged.