What is Reddit's opinion of The Incredible Baron?

From 3.5 billion Reddit comments

I was the artist for The Incredible Baron. We tried to make a mobile game with a genuine story mode and enough challenges to keep people playing long after they finished the main campaign.

You can play the first 5 levels for free; the only in-game purchase is the full game, no microtransactions or ads.

Hi, I'm David, and the game I've been working on is The Incredible Baron. It's a story-driven RTS with a heavy dose of customization through creature collecting and team building.

We've just released the game on iOS, Android, and Windows. You can download the game and play the first five levels for free.

We've used the traditional, pay once to unlock the whole game approach, which feels good but hasn't really been successful for us thus far. I've been working on PR outreach, but the only responses I've gotten have been, frankly unethical, offers of paid reviews. The experience has been a bit discouraging, but I'm confident our game is fun and of above average quality for the mobile market, and I won't soon quit trying to gain it some attention.

My background is in game development, but after getting laid off from a larger studio, I decided to turn to indie development for more creative freedom. My experience so far has been fulfilling, but not financially self-sufficient. I've taken on multiple other part-time jobs to pay the bills during development (mainly teaching at Columbia College in Chicago). Our artist teaches grade school in Minnesota, and our programmer does contract work and runs a site where he offers our game's engine, FlatRedBall, free for anyone to use.

I think a lot of people have misconceptions regarding the odds of success in the game industry. Unfortunately, being good at game development is only part of the equation, and it's hard enough! Marketing and promotion are becoming perhaps of more importance to financial sustainability.

I'd love to share this story, as well as any opportunity to increase awareness of The Incredible Baron. Thanks!

I was the artist for the project. Our starting goal was to create a mobile game that played like a traditional PC game but with touch controls. Because we were primarily PC gamers, we wrote a complete story mode (with skippable cutscenes), no microtransactions, and even allowed players to play the first 5 levels for free before purchasing the game. The lead programmer managed to get the game running on iOS, Android, and even Windows Store!

Some of the mobile influence might be seen in the Steam release (short levels for quick plays), but we added PC features that we expect in games like hotkeys, fullscreen support, and Steam cards/badges. Despite the origin as a mobile game, and the negative connotation that comes with that moniker, I really feel like we've created something that's fun to play.

It's also available on iOS, Android, Windows Store.

It was originally created as a traditional game for mobile devices; a story mode without microtransactions and challenges levels to keep players coming back. The game is free for the first 5 levels and the only in-app purchase is to buy the complete game.