Colossal Cave has a new price! We have heard our gamers, and the price of Colossal Cave is now $24.99.
From Ken Williams - "Thank you all! And, there is good news. We are repricing the game. If you look now, the game is $24.99. The fact that we lowered the price says that we listen to players.
And that said, I can explain a bit of what happened behind the scenes. As I mentioned earlier, I'm not sure this is a game for everyone. It targets a fairly small slice of the market. It's a mentally challenging game in a world where the bigger hits are action oriented. It's also a game that many of the target buyers feel they've already played. We didn't want to cheapen the quality of the game, so when you look at our production cost, and divide it by the size of the target market, you recognize that the price per copy needs to be high.
I didn't (and still don't) consider $39.99 to be a big number. You can hardly go to the movies these days, with popcorn and parking, and not spend that much. Roberta's last game sold over a million copies at $59.99, over 25 years ago! That's probably over $100 in 2023 numbers. I'd also mention that many of today's games, that are available at low cost, have in-game spending. We have none of that and don't plan on using this game in any way to make money beyond the initial purchase.
I should also mention that buying the game gives you all of: The Windows version, the Mac version, the Steam Deck version, and the Steam VR version (when it is available .. soon I hope!) The Steam Deck version is a true Linux version that runs awesome on a Steam Deck, and the Steam VR version of the game is a big step up from what we released on the Quest 2. I should probably also admit that we got pinged for a few things on the initial release of the Quest 2 version and we are addressing those issues now for our Steam VR version of the game. The Steam VR (or should I call it PC VR?) release will be an amazing one. From my perspective, it's a heck of a deal.
And all of that said: Today's price points are lower and player expectations are for lower prices. It doesn't matter what I think is fair, what math I run through my spreadsheets, or anything except what players think. The message I've heard is that $39.99 is too high, so we lowered it.
Ultimately, for Roberta and I the game isn't as much about money as it is having happy players. We are very proud of the game and want as many people playing it as possible. It would be nice if we could recover our investment, but if we don't, we don't. The most important thing is that players are happy."
SUMMARY
- Price change - $24.99
- We decided to bundle all five versions under one steam key: PC, Mac, Steam Deck (a true Linux native Steam Deck version), Linux AND an amazing Steam VR version (coming very soon) There are some VERY dramatic enhancements that are in the Steam VR version over what was released on the Quest 2 VR.
- It doesn't sound like a big deal, but probably the biggest impact change was to add text to the page that asks about taking instructions. The way the original text game works is that if the player asks for instructions they are given 1,000 moves on the lamp, otherwise they are given only 300. Completing the game in 300 moves should only be attempted by someone playing the game to get the maximum 350 points. The idea is to take instructions until you have worked out your strategies for winning and then play again NOT taking instructions.
The original game gave the player no indication of what was happening. We debated adding something but forced ourselves to be true to the original game. That turned out to be a bad idea, in that players were running out of lamp time.
- A less obvious change, but one with great impact was that we completely replaced all of the marketing copy on the Steam site and added a video of Roberta playing the game. Our initial Steam page gave the impression that it was an action game. I never wanted that. It's not an action game and anyone thinking it is will be disappointed. It's more like an interactive escape room or puzzle game. It's important that the right players buy the game, and that they know what they are getting. I also wanted to emphasize the history more. It's a museum piece for people who want to see the history of gaming. We're working on a documentary now that highlights the origins of the game.
- The mazes are impossible for most players. There are at least three solutions to them (dropping items, subtle differences in the way the rooms look, subtle differences in the room descriptions). There is a hint that pops up asking the player if they'd like a hint, but it was coming up only every 50 moves and was only in one of the two mazes. We dropped this to five moves and placed it in both mazes.
FYI - Don Woods, one of the authors of the original game played, and gave this feedback with a fourth way to solve the maze:
"I was dismayed at how trivial the all-alike maze becomes when the game fills in the map as I go. I just ran around a while and then looked to see what I had. And of course the pirate's lair is much much easier to find given that the map reveals the northwest exit: the ONLY passage in that maze that isn't E/W/N/S/U/D. I wasn't sure what you'd do to make it harder to find, and instead the map makes it stand out! (The art for the lair itself was quite nice, btw.)"
- When a player would get killed and choose resurrection, the lamp counter was not being reset. In other words, if you were almost out of lamp light, and fell off a cliff, you'd still have the same number of time left in your lamp post-resurrection. We now give you a minimum of 300 moves in the lamp after resurrection.
- The hint on the grate (the entrance to the cave) was broken. We fixed it.
- There are some rooms that have passages that return you to the room from which you departed. There are also passages that roll the dice to decide where to take you. We added hints to these so that players would realize what was happening.
- Various bug fixes, translation fixes (improved the russian, japanese and italian translations), and improved animations.