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Comment by daveFNbuck | Hacker News Reader

In his previous post, Jeff said that better art styles would increase his sales. So he doesn't feel that this would be gambling his future.

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But in this new post, he points out that better art styles would likely mean he needs to sell 40k copies (wildly optimistic) instead of 25k (doable over a few years) and likely have to get some kind of up-front loan to pay for the increased costs of that art (he estimates an extra $110k). He suggests that would put the financial future of the (profitable for 25 years doing what he's doing!) company well into "gamble" territory.

That's a question of how much he'll increase his sales, not whether his sales will decrease.

I don't believe they will increase.

I don't think people get that making something a little less sucky doesn't really result in appreciable sales. Even if he improves the graphics a little, it's still going to be a dated text-heavy PC RPG that is based on a certain time. Like, if you don't enjoy retro styling, the difference between a game like The End is Nigh and Iconcolasts isn't really going to draw you in, nor would End's simpler graphics be an issue. Maybe a huge stylistic increase like Hollow Knight might though.

Thinking about it like tech debt - there is a middle ground, to gradually improve his "tilekit" over time. He's willing to take the extra 6-8 months (which is roughly a $60-80k cash investment based on his $200k/20 months budget) to rewrite the engine, but not willing to spend one month per game to tidy up some of his worst art offenders.

He mentions this in the earlier post. He tried that once before with a game, where he put quite a bit of effort into making the graphics better, but people didn't really notice the improvement, they still complained about the graphics. From this, he concludes that what people want isn't just a short upgrade, it's a vast improvement in quality, and he cannot afford to spend time on that at the moment. I think that's a fair tradeoff that he can make from the numbers, and his experience in the industry gives his decision a lot of weight.

No, in his previous post he said that better set would likely increase his sales, but not proportional to the increased costs and risks.

Right. That's not compatible with the idea that he's not changing the art style because he's worried it would alienate his existing customer base.

It would increase his sales, but by his estimate it would have to sell almost twice as many copies to break even.

Coherent art would cost him more than 3 times his current art budget.

Yes, my point is that Jeff doesn't think he needs to stick with the current art style in order to keep his existing customers.

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