Wow, an analog watch? This must be the end of the world.
Owen first mentioned doomsday gamebook This Is Not a Test just over a year ago, making special note of its zombie-free end of the world, Sorcery!-like blend of RPG elements with branching story paths, and its trailer’s, hmmm, questionable music. The thing looks–and plays, possibly–like it was pulled straight out of an old EC Comics horror title, enough that I’m close to breaking a self-imposed ban on Crypt Keeper puns.
Now, in the harsh light of the new world’s brutal economy of blood–wait, sorry, it’s just the App Store–developer Robot Monster Productions are changing This Is Not a Test’s pricing from upfront payments to free, with an in-app purchase to unlock the “premium” upgrade.
According to this IndieDB post, the soon-to-be free base game will include banner ads and, shudder to think, timers for life regeneration. Disturbing even in the most saccharine bits of gaming fluff, imagine how intrusive these free-to-play tropes will be when you’re mulling over what brand of dog food to eat as the world crumbles around you.
Hold off on the pitchforks though. The developer is pretty forthright about the nature of this pricing change, jokingly calling it “evil.” Premium removes the ads and timed lives, and unlocks color art. Plus the update, which Robot Monster Productions estimates will be out by October 24th, includes fixes for image proportions on big ol’ tablet screens (why you’d want to play a looker like this on anything smaller is beyond me).
This Is Not a Test is available now on the App Store, though maybe hold off until the new pricing kicks in. Jon Richardson of Robot Monster tells us that those who’ve already paid for the base game will still need the $2.99 premium upgrade in order to ditch ads and timers. (If you’ve already got premium you’re grandfathered for this update.)
For what it’s worth, that trailer (with goreious, ahem, glorious sound) below.
No comments:
Post a Comment