Infinitap Games

DLC is still a controversial issue in the game industry. What should be included in the base game, and what is it okay to charge for? I give my take as a developer and why I'd be hesitant to do DLC for Neverending Nightmares (despite people asking for it).

I don't really see NeN getting DLC at this point, there is not much else you could do with it since you had a very set concept and goals and you met them already. Extending the story would feel like stretching it.

Only thing I'd say would be possible would be a CHEAP dlc (like $1) that unlocks the cinematics for the alternate endings for those that have beat the game at least once. Hell I'd buy that. I am sure there are a number of folk that finished the game but didn't have it in them to go and play through the last sections to find the divergent paths for the alternate endings and play through those. Then you patch the base game to link to it in steam or whatever service when you see the "path" screen showing there are alternate endings. Will folk gripe? yeah. though at this point it would be obvious it wasn't your goal initially.

I grew up before DLC was DLC. Heck before there was a thing called DLC at all. Tyhen we had expansion packs, large usually "bang for your buck" addons for a game that cost the price of a budget title and gave you a pile of added stuff to do in a game for a while. Back then, those were actually generally received well and people liked getting more to do with games, it felt like the developer cared about the game they made and the fans that bought it.

Nowadays the exploitation of DLC has soured the concept quite a bit, but it is here to stay and part of most game development models. I was actually surprised when the witcher 3's studio announced the 11 dlc they release will NOT be paid for, but all entirely free. That kind of decision gets them a lot of fan love, but love can't pay bills.

For the next game, it COULD be an addition if it is either fairly trivial and there just to enhance some players experience in ways they like, or if it's significant and seems worth the cost. So there is a lot to consider and the way NeN is, if the next game is like it I don't see a large market for DLC.

If you were to do DLC the kinds of things I'd be interested in (obviously I don't know the next game's design so I"m speaking speculatively) would be:

Alternate main characters (Like if you had the option to play NeN through as Gabby and see it all from her eyes somehow, though i realize it wouldn't make sense at this point)
Alternate Soundtracks
Prologue level (even though you play it after the base game, it gives additional insight and hints at the story and characters to better give the experience weight)
Epilogue Level (how does the experience apply to the main character? did it have a good effect? a bad one? None? )
The Real World level (If the nigthmare is a twisted reflection of their life or history, offer a level that clears the looking glass a bit and takes away from of the distortion. This might be in lieu or a pro/epilogue and condense the real world reflections into 1 chapter)
Optional filters for game view (e.g. sepai tone, old film style, harsher shadows, level/nightmare specific gels, NeN 1 shading, background texture so the game looks like it takes place of a large piece of art paper)
Optional 8-bit NES mode (lol)
Big head mode
Hardcore Gameplay Mode (where you add back in elements you think players would find too difficult, but those that want it can enjoy the challenge)

I don't mind alternating the texture of the experience in different ways, and I love alternate or additive experiences that make the game feel more significant. Granted they might not fit the initial vision "perfectly" but it can give the game new life, and everyone has their own preferences and might appreciate the game altered a little.

I think if we wanted to unlock the alternate paths/endings, we'd just do that in a base game. I've considered making it easier to unlock them (ie. you have to replay less), but we are focusing on our next game, so I don't know if we'll get around it.

I'm not sure if you've played Retro/Grade, but we had a million different extra ships, rendering filters, hard modes, and all that, but I don't think anyone ever saw it. It was linked to challenge mode, which I thought was the best part of the game, but no one played it. :-/

I think the lesson I learned was bonus content is not really worth it for indie games. hahaha While I can see that some people might pay for the bonus content, I would feel bad nickel and diming consumer. If I offered DLC, I'd want it to be substantial, but making substantial stuff - ie DLC is a challenge.

If you want, I'm sure me or some other player can share our fully unlocked save, so you can play the branching levels.

Matt,

It is my personal goal to unlock all of challenge mode on R/G. I'm doing it verrry slowly though. But if I ever need to chill out, it's one of my go to games.

Awesome! You are my hero! The special zone at the end is super hard, but has some of my favorites. The extra fast levels are insane.

The early challenge mode levels are pretty dull, which might be why people weren't interested in the mode, but we wanted to provide some challenges for every skill level. It was tough coming up with 130, and some may not be the most interesting, there is definitely a lot of fun things there.