Switching from free to paid game

Heyo, it's Youko again and it's... Tuesday!? 😮

Remember the "big announcement looming in the distance" I mentioned in our last weekly update? It turns out the time for that announcement is now! Before we really get to it, let me explain the reasoning behind it.

As you know, with Steam as saturated as it is with games, visibility during Steam sales make up an absolute massive chunk of sales.

The main problem is... well, Sierra Ops is free! While only episode 1 is actually free, it is technically the "base game", and the thing that actually gets promoted during sales. If your game is free to begin with, Steam has absolutely no reason to promote it! +especially since we don't have microtransactions.

We always make sure to put the season pass on sale during these periods, but DLC just does not have the visibility to reach the eyeballs we need. Without sales to back us up, it becomes incredibly difficult to fund continued development of the game. Abandoning the game is not an option for us considering the amount of time we've spent making Sierra Ops and all the players that have enjoyed the fruits of our effort, so a solution must be found. Now, the question, how did we end up in this situation to begin with?

As I explained in my first update, the development of Sierra Ops has been a very troubled one. After finally exiting out of development hell, we decided we need some way to support the continued development of the game into the future. We originally looked at Early Access like several other games, but after exploring around, we were notified of another format: Episodic.

Several years ago, episodic games were quite successful. Several very well-known story games work under the episodic formula where the first episode is free to draw in interested players and later episodes are paid via DLC. These “free games” even allowed for trading cards and emotes because DLC was counted under “in-game purchases”. In 2019, however, we discovered Steam’s policy on this had changed. DLC was no longer considered true “in-game purchases”, so even if players spent over 30 dollars in the game, we would be completely barred from trading cards. These issues only compounded with the DLC visibility problems highlighted above, dramatically killing our sales.

What's that solution? Making Sierra Ops a paid game. 👀 Basically, we’re looking into separating the game into multiple installments all under the Sierra Ops label. The first game will include episodes 1 and 2, while episodes 3 and 4 will be moved to their own game. This way, we ensure that we get the most visibility possible for our releases while ensuring we're able to keep the quality high and deliver relatively quickly.

Saves will be easily transferable between games to allow you to continue your adventure. For new players, if they have not completed previous installments, they'll be given a selection of "canons" to carry forwards from. These "canons" will not be ideal in any sense of the word, but they'll be good enough platforms to jump off of in terms of a fresh playthrough.

We will be releasing a save editor at some point, so you can customize your transferred saves to experiment with different scenarios. 💪

We've been talking with Steam and Sekai Project for several weeks now and this is the best solution we've found. Frankly, we would really love it if we can carry on with the episodic structure, but selling the episodes via DLC is just not viable. This way, we're also able to actually execute our full plans instead of whatever low-budget, rushed conclusion we'd be forced to make if we stuck to DLC.

To smooth over the transition and make this as fair as possible for our current players, the following will happen:

1. Sierra Ops will switch to being a paid game on August 4th 6th at the latest.

2. The first game (this game) will be $14.99 USD and contain episodes 1 + 2. Episodes 3+4 will be moved to its own game, also for $14.99 USD.

3. All current players of Sierra Ops episode 1 will get episode 1 + 2 for free even if they have not paid for any DLC as a thank you for taking interest in our game.

4. The season pass and episodes 2-4 will become unavailable after the update. However players who already own them will be able to continue playing as originally intended. This means that if you own the season pass, you will not need to purchase the second game to play episodes 3+4.

5. If you bought episode 2 solo, please contact us directly via innomen.productions@gmail.com or Discord if you would like to upgrade to the season pass at any point within 2021. second game at any point following the release of the second game.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact us directly via innomen.productions@gmail.com, Discord, or the Steam forums. We will create an FAQ as questions come in. 👍

tl;dr: Sierra Ops is becoming paid games. Please refer to the above numbered list for transition details.

Thank you for supporting the game and us through this chaotic period! 🥰