B) How would you feel about buying a game from the following services? [1=bad, 10=good]
B1) Steam: 5
B2) Independent: 10
B3) Another game portal: 0 (haven’t looked)
B4) Amazon: 3

C) How many computer games (not console games) have you bought:
C1) Online: 50 or so, all in the past 5 years (Steam, Good Old Games, Telltale)
C2) In a retail store: 100 or so, but almost none in the past 5 years
C3) Without playing first: 90%+ of games

D) Would you ever buy add-ons to a game via micropayments?
No

E) What if you could make money by creating levels? [1=bad, 10=good]
5

F) How important is the level editor to you? [1=not, 10=very]
10
I use Jetpack as my #1 example of how important a good level editor can be. Unlike many games, whose editors are designed for technical people, Jetpack’s was user-friendly and simple, so anybody could create a level. It didn’t require configuring object properties or writing even simple scripts. Everything just worked when you placed it down, as you expected. That is very important.

G) How important is the “retro mode” (web port of the DOS original) to you? [1=not, 10=very]
10

H) What are your favorite sites to download, play, or buy games?
Good Old Games

B) How would you feel about buying a game from the following services? [1=bad, 10=good]
B1) 8
B2) 6
B3) 1
B4) 4
C) How many computer games (not console games) have you bought:
C1) 60% (and rising)
C2) 40%
C3) 35% (Sequals to games I have played)

D) No

E) No

F) 11

G) 7

H) Steam, Kongregate

B) How would you feel about buying a game from the following services? [1=bad, 10=good]
B1) 6
B2) 4
B3) 3
B4) 8

C) How many computer games (not console games) have you bought:
C1) Online – 90%
C2) In a retail store – 10%
C3) without playing first – 40% – I usually play a demo of said game first.

D) Would you ever buy add-ons to a game via micropayments?

Yes, I tend to buy alot of extra content from Xbox live for my xbox games.

E) What if you could make money by creating levels? [1=bad, 10=good]

1 – I really don’t like the idea of the users profitting from the game. It can lead to a problem much like the apple app store spam but many times worse since levels are easier to create than apps. Fans create brilliant quality levels as it is.

F) How important is the level editor to you? [1=not, 10=very]

9 – I think jetpack loses most of what it is if there is no level editor. My fondest memory of the game is going round to a friends house with my brother and taking it in turns to create a level which the others would try and play through.

G) How important is the “retro mode” (web port of the DOS original) to you? [1=not, 10=very]

7 – I love the sound of a modern update to the original. It does depend on how much Jetpack 2 will differ from the original. If it becomes a completely different game for example, the retro version would be a must have for me (regardless of how good the sequal will be!)

H) What are your favorite sites to download, play, or buy games?

amazon, xbox live, PSN, steam, facebook.

If you’re looking to sell, steam must surely be the best way to go for PC. Also, a good example of an internet game ethic is Bejeweled Blitz by Popcap games on facebook. They have a facebook app in which you play a game of Bejeweled in a one minute time trial. Your high score for that week is placed on a leaderboard which sits next to the game, and each week the high scores are reset. Brilliant fun, only managed by the fact that you can see your friend’s high scores. Offline, you can buy the full game which is more level based than high score based.

http://www.kotaku.com * My favorite
http://www.joystiq.com * Another Favorite
http://www.destructoid.com
http://www.gamespot.com
http://www.ign.com
http://www.n4g.com
http://www.1up.com
http://www.gametab.com

A great popular site to play games on is http://www.newgrounds.com

Based on these responses and recent feedback I’m going to shift course in a few areas:
* put a lot more emphasis on the level editor
* make the game more closely follow the original, possibly ditch box2d, and make the industrial theme match the original Jetpack graphics
* probably make the retro mode a post-release feature
* add some social features
* look into Steam, Kongregate, & Facebook, and not worry about selling on portals for the time being
* maybe run a micropayments trial on a big casual site like Facebook. Unlocking or buying level packs will cost, but individual levels will be free.

I could still use more data on H) favorite gaming sites, if you have anything to add. I’d like to pursue the sites that offer the best fit for Jetpack.

huh? 4 I guess. Depends what you mean exactly…and I mean EXACTLY. i’d rather wait and see what you’re thinking about before I give a real answer but for now it’s a 4. Or do you mean in general?

B) How would you feel about buying a game from the following services? [1=bad, 10=good]
B1) Steam
B2) An independent developer site
B3) A game portal (eg: Arcade Town, Big Fish, GameHouse, Pogo, Yahoo Games)
B4) Amazon

B1 – who?
B2 – i’m usually not very comfortable with this, but it depends: so 5.
B3 – I don’t think yahoo games has viruses, but i don’t really know…and that’s the only one I’ve heard of of the examples, so I can’t be too comfortable with this one: 3.
B4 – Amazon 10 all the way. I buy tons of stuff from them. They’re definitely one of the best places to buy from, especially if it’s buying FROM THEM (as opposed to from someone with an account on amazon)

C) How many computer games (not console games) have you bought:
C1) Online
C2) In a retail store
C3) Without playing first – based only on reviews, word-of-mouth, or screenshots

C1 – 0 I think. I go to the store for my computer games so I can look all over the boxes. I’ll buy video games online, though.
C2 – Do I really have to count them…I’m not near my own computer right now…I’ve bought enough. I’d say 100% of my purchased computer games have come from retail stores
C3 – um….umm….actually…probably 80% or so of my computer games. I’ve looked at the boxes, the reviews, etc., and if they looked great I usually bought them. Demo’s are nice, though, if I don’t have to go out of my way to get one or too far out of my way to play one.

D) Would you ever buy add-ons to a game via micropayments? (eg: $2 for a mission pack)

what? Oh, no that would kill the game for me. NO NO NO NO NO.

E) What if you could make money by creating levels? [1=bad, 10=good]

Say you create a level pack in the game, you set a price for it (ie 100 credits), and when users buy it you get a percentage. Your income would be (rough guess) from $10 – $30 per 100 copies sold. Buying level packs would not require owning Jetpack – so if the free version becomes popular on Facebook for example, popular level packs might sell 1,000+ copies.
Possible side effects: better quality addon levels, but fewer free levels available.

don’t put me on the spot like this…what are you trying to say? Well…are you saying other people would have to pay for the levels? In that case it’s a 1. I don’t want to have to pay for anything more than a game when I buy it. And I don’t know if the levels would be better as a result…Sticking with a 1.

F) How important is the level editor to you? [1=not, 10=very]

10 DEFINITELY. When I couldn’t get anywhere with the game and the levels that were already there, the editor made the game fun again (because games suck when you can’t get anywhere with them).

G) How important is the “retro mode” (web port of the DOS original) to you? [1=not, 10=very]

12. I need that retro mode. Old stuff, no matter how sub-par-by-today’s-standards the graphics are, needs to be preserved in old and great games. If there’s no change to the game besides making the graphics better, then it might be a waste to have retro mode since there’s still the original to play. But don’t let my comments confuse you: retro mode is a must have.

H) What are your favorite sites to download, play, or buy games?

I don’t really have any favorite sites…I usually stick to the games on my hard drive…i got a couple great ones from adept software, and there are some good games that I play once in a while on popcap games and onemorelevel.com

B) Services rating? [1=bad, 10=good]
B1) Steam -10
B2) An independent developer site – 10
B3) A game portal (eg: Arcade Town, Big Fish, GameHouse, Pogo, Yahoo Games) – 3 these always seem to have a huge list of so-so games so I don’t go there,…takes too much time wandering through the games
B4) Amazon – 8

C) How many computer bought:
C1) Online – hundreds
C2) In a retail store – much much less than previous answer
C3) Without playing first – based only on reviews, word-of-mouth, or screenshots – probably 10-20

D) Buy add-ons via micropayments? – yes

E) Make money by creating levels? [1=bad, 10=good]
1 – this wouldn’t entice me to create levels

F) How important is level editor? [1=not, 10=very] 10 – one of the fun parts of the game since it is easy to use and you can see your results immediately; also educational for children learning to use the computer

G) How important is “retro mode”? [1=not, 10=very] 7 – makes it easier to play Jetpack at work!

H) Favorite sites to download, play, or buy games? gogamer.com, Steam, amazon.com

B1) 6. We all know Steam’s flaws but it’d surely bring more attention for the game. If it’s not the only purchase option, go for it.
B2) 9. It’s relatively convenient, cheap and safe to set one up today. I’d say this should be the primary priority, with a spare option (like Steam) that doesn’t require as much word-of-mouth.
B3) 2. Never used those.
B4) 3. Won’t be my first choice if it can rather be downloaded from Steam or JetpackHQ.

C1) 20+
C2) 10+
C3) Most of them.

D) Nah, I’m against this recent trend of priced DLC. It just makes more sense to have the price contain the whole product.

E) 3. I find this unnecessary (see D). I’d rather see design trends flow freely, people shouldn’t need any incentive to make levels.

F) 10. It’s probably the single greatest reason why I still occasionally fire up Jetpack over 15 years after its release.

G) 5. I’m impartial to this, the original game is already freeware and can easily be tried out by anyone who hasn’t played it yet.

H) TIGSource and Kongregate for indie games, Steam and Good Old Games for commercial ones.

B) Steam – Frightening | An independent developer site – reluctant but happy | A game portal – afraid of getting a shite product | Amazon – very reluctant

C) Online – a handful | In a retail store – virtually none | Without playing first – based only on reviews, word-of-mouth, or screenshots – very few

D) Would you ever buy add-ons to a game via micropayments? – no.

E) What if you could make money by creating levels? 5 – tempting, but daunting. i would fear the market would get saturated quick and my attempts at levels would fly under the radar in favor of popular, trusted levels which launched early in the ‘buy levels’ scheme.

F) How important is the level editor to you? 5 – an interesting distraction and kinda fun

G) How important is the “retro mode” (web port of the DOS original) to you? 7. that would be the primary reason I would play, I would imagine. Although the original being so readily available (thankyou mr pedersen) I would probably play that solely if I desired. Though if the new version contained it, I would be MUCH more inclined (as if I’m not eagerly anticipating it anyway) to play it.

H) What are your favorite sites to download, play, or buy games? – I used to like Acid-Play, but indiegames and jayisgames are my primary haunts nowdays.

B1) 6 (Never bought from them, but heard they’re good.)
B2) 10 (If paid through Paypal or other trustable service)
B3) 9 (Same as above)
B4) 1 (Don’t they put big profit margins on stuff? I never buy from them because of their shipping costs, though that wouldn’t be applicable here.)

C1) None, but I would have if I had the money.
C2) 2-3.
C3) 2-3.
(Come to think of it, I own a very small number of PC games.)

D) Yes, if the content was worthwhile.

E) 10. Oh yes please, my childhood dream, getting money for creating levels.

F) 10. Yes, Adam, after the game engine itself the level editor was hands down the best thing in Jetpack.

G) 6. Really depends on the changes made in the new version’s engine. If a lot of changes are made to the way Jetpack works, I might prefer the retro mode.

H) I have very little time to play these days, but I use Facebook for social networking so I most often play games there. Sometimes Kongregate.