Future of SOM - Questions for the Devs

[Ansgar Odinson]

1) Are there any plans for some story DLCs or expansions? Maybe some interesting post credits stories?

2) What are the prospects for sequels? Can we expect to see more of Hazel and these fantastical creatures in future games?

3) Are there plans for any other sort of non-games media? More comics, tv, movies, etc?

4) Last but not least, Crouton and Catfish plush toys when?

[morsfinem]

Not the dev, just a regular guy here. It is charming how you seems to be very engaged in this game forum (I've seen your reply a lot browsing the discussion, like A LOT)

I'm gonna be objectively and brutally honest here. YES the game is really pretty with it's southern gothic artstyle.. But with how it is performing so far commercially (at least from what can be derived from publicly available data), the answers to all of those are HIGHLY UNLIKELY..

[Ansgar Odinson]

Originally posted by morsfinem:

Not the dev, just a regular guy here. It is charming how you seems to be very engaged in this game forum (I've seen your reply a lot browsing the discussion, like A LOT)

I'm gonna be objectively and brutally honest here. YES the game is really pretty with it's southern gothic artstyle.. But with how it is performing so far commercially (at least from what can be derived from publicly available data), the answers to all of those are HIGHLY UNLIKELY..

The only data we have is concurrent players on steam. Considering its primary market was gamepass, its a AA game, and single player, that really doesnt mean much.

I, you, nobody really, knows what the big bosses count as successful. Especially right now. Microsoft has canned studios after majorly successful games (see hi fi rush), while others seem to get continued funding with less success. All of this is to say, we dont know what Microsoft considers a success for this game. All of this doomsayer stuff seems to be coming from a group absolutely dedicated to willing failure into existence based on culture war bs.

If the game fails and we never see more of it, I will be disappointed and this game will get added to a small collection of games I consider criminally underrated. If it does get more games, well, that would just be awesome. Either way I am glad I got to experience this game.

[Mondo Zappa]

Originally posted by morsfinem:

Not the dev, just a regular guy here. It is charming how you seems to be very engaged in this game forum (I've seen your reply a lot browsing the discussion, like A LOT)

I'm gonna be objectively and brutally honest here. YES the game is really pretty with it's southern gothic artstyle.. But with how it is performing so far commercially (at least from what can be derived from publicly available data), the answers to all of those are HIGHLY UNLIKELY..

It's always fun to make up data based on information that means nothing towards actual sales, I too love spreading misinformation.

[morsfinem]

Originally posted by Ansgar Odinson:

Originally posted by morsfinem:

Not the dev, just a regular guy here. It is charming how you seems to be very engaged in this game forum (I've seen your reply a lot browsing the discussion, like A LOT)

I'm gonna be objectively and brutally honest here. YES the game is really pretty with it's southern gothic artstyle.. But with how it is performing so far commercially (at least from what can be derived from publicly available data), the answers to all of those are HIGHLY UNLIKELY..

The only data we have is concurrent players on steam. Considering its primary market was gamepass, its a AA game, and single player, that really doesnt mean much.

I, you, nobody really, knows what the big bosses count as successful. Especially right now. Microsoft has canned studios after majorly successful games (see hi fi rush), while others seem to get continued funding with less success. All of this is to say, we dont know what Microsoft considers a success for this game. All of this doomsayer stuff seems to be coming from a group absolutely dedicated to willing failure into existence based on culture war bs.

If the game fails and we never see more of it, I will be disappointed and this game will get added to a small collection of games I consider criminally underrated. If it does get more games, well, that would just be awesome. Either way I am glad I got to experience this game.

Welp I do hope this game is successful enough with its actual data.. But yes, I stand by my point. I fully understand that steam concurrent is definitely NOT ACTUAL data, but more often than not, it's a pretty good indicator for game performance.

Please note that I don't wanna support each "side", just trying to be neutral as much as I could here. I definitely respect the art direction and the execution is pretty good. But the game is just an okay game for me. Definitely not 10/10 (for context my 10/10 is elden ring) and definitely not below 5/10 either..

This game has the misfortune of being caught in the middle of gamergate/culture war/whatever thingy

I would love to be proven wrong and I would love to buy the crouton plushie as well if it ever got released tho..

[Mondo Zappa]

Originally posted by morsfinem:

Originally posted by Ansgar Odinson:

The only data we have is concurrent players on steam. Considering its primary market was gamepass, its a AA game, and single player, that really doesnt mean much.

I, you, nobody really, knows what the big bosses count as successful. Especially right now. Microsoft has canned studios after majorly successful games (see hi fi rush), while others seem to get continued funding with less success. All of this is to say, we dont know what Microsoft considers a success for this game. All of this doomsayer stuff seems to be coming from a group absolutely dedicated to willing failure into existence based on culture war bs.

If the game fails and we never see more of it, I will be disappointed and this game will get added to a small collection of games I consider criminally underrated. If it does get more games, well, that would just be awesome. Either way I am glad I got to experience this game.

Welp I do hope this game is successful enough with its actual data.. But yes, I stand by my point. I fully understand that steam concurrent is definitely NOT ACTUAL data, but more often than not, it's a pretty good indicator for game performance.

Please note that I don't wanna support each "side", just trying to be neutral as much as I could here. I definitely respect the art direction and the execution is pretty good. But the game is just an okay game for me. Definitely not 10/10 (for context my 10/10 is elden ring) and definitely not below 5/10 either..

This game has the misfortune of being caught in the middle of gamergate/culture war/whatever thingy

I would love to be proven wrong and I would love to buy the crouton plushie as well if it ever got released tho..

That in it of itself is where the problem lies though, the reason I said this data means nothing is because it IS just that. A lot of culture war people have others believing that steam concurrent players matter for any game that isn't a multiplayer game but they just don't, factually. Why? They are always lower, much lower than what the actual sales of the games are with one big exception, Elden Ring. Elden Ring is the only game (in recent memory, the past 6 years at least) that had a massive concurrent player count day one in recent memory, was single player focused, and pulled in huge numbers, but that's it. The truth of the matter is that a lot of people (me included) buy steam games and don't play them for a bit, by a large margin. While steam's user base grows, the amount of people buying games doesn't grow at the same rate and that factors into why Steam sucks as a metric for single player games. The only good metrics Ive seen thus far are: 1. For consoles, Amazon's best seller list by console gives a good idea of how many console units are selling since amazon is a lot of people's primary source for that. 2. In general, there are unit based accounts (not within culture war stuff they just tell you how many people played or bought so to speak) like a month in or so (Yes it takes a month to know in a lot of cases, so a lot of accounts who offer "exact sales information" before a month or 3 weeks in are literally just making numbers up. Hope this clears up some more trustworthy ways for you to follow games that don't require a lot of players on all at once.

[Ansgar Odinson]

Originally posted by Mondo Zappa:

Originally posted by morsfinem:

Welp I do hope this game is successful enough with its actual data.. But yes, I stand by my point. I fully understand that steam concurrent is definitely NOT ACTUAL data, but more often than not, it's a pretty good indicator for game performance.

Please note that I don't wanna support each "side", just trying to be neutral as much as I could here. I definitely respect the art direction and the execution is pretty good. But the game is just an okay game for me. Definitely not 10/10 (for context my 10/10 is elden ring) and definitely not below 5/10 either..

This game has the misfortune of being caught in the middle of gamergate/culture war/whatever thingy

I would love to be proven wrong and I would love to buy the crouton plushie as well if it ever got released tho..

That in it of itself is where the problem lies though, the reason I said this data means nothing is because it IS just that. A lot of culture war people have others believing that steam concurrent players matter for any game that isn't a multiplayer game but they just don't, factually. Why? They are always lower, much lower than what the actual sales of the games are with one big exception, Elden Ring. Elden Ring is the only game (in recent memory, the past 6 years at least) that had a massive concurrent player count day one in recent memory, was single player focused, and pulled in huge numbers, but that's it. The truth of the matter is that a lot of people (me included) buy steam games and don't play them for a bit, by a large margin. While steam's user base grows, the amount of people buying games doesn't grow at the same rate and that factors into why Steam sucks as a metric for single player games. The only good metrics Ive seen thus far are: 1. For consoles, Amazon's best seller list by console gives a good idea of how many console units are selling since amazon is a lot of people's primary source for that. 2. In general, there are unit based accounts (not within culture war stuff they just tell you how many people played or bought so to speak) like a month in or so (Yes it takes a month to know in a lot of cases, so a lot of accounts who offer "exact sales information" before a month or 3 weeks in are literally just making numbers up. Hope this clears up some more trustworthy ways for you to follow games that don't require a lot of players on all at once.

To add to what you said, shorter single player games like this also tend to have low concurrent player counts because people finish the game and stop playing.

If you are going to use a steam metric at all, number of reviews is more useful. Best estimates suggest that roughly 2-10 percent of players bother to leave reviews depending on the type of game and other factors.

With over 700 reviews and more than 1000 people playing at this moment, I wouldn't worry to much about this game selling poorly.

[DarkHorsePrime]

All time peak was 1411 people, that's a flop as far as steam is concerned. only just cracked top 50 best seller on steam at #49. A game made for game pass is an accurate statement where you can't see user statistics but it comes across as a cop out.
Pretending the game is doing amazing is also hurting perspectives as some of the non biased reviews are being deleted and threads heavily criticising the game are also being locked.

[Mondo Zappa]

Originally posted by DarkHorsePrime:

All time peak was 1411 people, that's a flop as far as steam is concerned. only just cracked top 50 best seller on steam at #49. A game made for game pass is an accurate statement where you can't see user statistics but it comes across as a cop out.
Pretending the game is doing amazing is also hurting perspectives as some of the non biased reviews are being deleted and threads heavily criticising the game are also being locked.

No one's pretending anything kid, and we can all see what you're about even with the mouse icon. No need to hide how you feel behind a game you don't care about. I would also like to proudly tell you that I discovered one of those wonderful "non biased" reviews was clearly written by A.I. and thankfully got it hidden by Steam. Me personally, if ur gonna hate on a game because it goes against your world view, you should have to write that hate out yourself. I mean, it's only fair. The only locked threads are weirdos who ended up saying the "quiet" part loud, you never wanna go full racist.

[Mondo Zappa]

Originally posted by DarkHorsePrime:

All time peak was 1411 people, that's a flop as far as steam is concerned. only just cracked top 50 best seller on steam at #49. A game made for game pass is an accurate statement where you can't see user statistics but it comes across as a cop out.
Pretending the game is doing amazing is also hurting perspectives as some of the non biased reviews are being deleted and threads heavily criticising the game are also being locked.

Honestly it should be a testament to how well this game is doing that ur spouting weirdo anti woke rhetoric and still enjoyed your time with the game, that alone should tell you the game is doing quite well.

[Kaine]

Originally posted by Mondo Zappa:

Originally posted by morsfinem:

Not the dev, just a regular guy here. It is charming how you seems to be very engaged in this game forum (I've seen your reply a lot browsing the discussion, like A LOT)

I'm gonna be objectively and brutally honest here. YES the game is really pretty with it's southern gothic artstyle.. But with how it is performing so far commercially (at least from what can be derived from publicly available data), the answers to all of those are HIGHLY UNLIKELY..

It's always fun to make up data based on information that means nothing towards actual sales, I too love spreading misinformation.

Except it isn't is it? A concurrent playerbase of 1k ish max and a gamepass tag on release.... You don't have to be Sherlock Holmes to see what is perfectly obvious.

You it seems are a gaslighting shill trying to influence opinion. Given that you abused me in the other thread and did something similar to another poster and no action was taken...I think you are likely paid and aren't a regular user here.

Say what you like- The majority of the consumer base aren't buying and everyone knows it- Claim the sky is green all you like.... We can all see it's actually blue.

[Ansgar Odinson]

Some creatures I would love to see them tackle in future installments:

1 - Skunk Ape
2 - Demon Dogs
3 - Wampus Cat
4 - The Mothman

[burlymatt]

There is such a lot of potential folklore they could tap into.
But I am content with South of Midnight being its own thing.

It is very clear how much work has gone into this game. Considering the online reactions to big game franchises of late I hope to see more small-scale, high quality games like South of Midnight.
Who has the time to trawl gigantic maps following a trail of exclamation marks these days?

Not that those games aren’t valid choices, of course.

[Ansgar Odinson]

Originally posted by burlymatt:

There is such a lot of potential folklore they could tap into.
But I am content with South of Midnight being its own thing.

It is very clear how much work has gone into this game. Considering the online reactions to big game franchises of late I hope to see more small-scale, high quality games like South of Midnight.
Who has the time to trawl gigantic maps following a trail of exclamation marks these days?

Not that those games aren’t valid choices, of course.

We need a more thriving market of AA games in general. Not everything needs to be a AAA mega corporate blockbuster.

[Mobile Suit God Damn]

OP, the fancy pants edition comes with a comic that takes place after the game and Haze has to face a Boo Hag.

[Ansgar Odinson]

Originally posted by Mobile Suit ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥:

OP, the fancy pants edition comes with a comic that takes place after the game and Haze has to face a Boo Hag. :LizzyD5:

Yeah, I really liked the comic. Would gladly grab some more comics of Hazel too. Would also love movies and short animations.