“So when is AirMech going to exit Beta?”

We’ve had a lot of confusion lately about when AirMech will be released since we have been in Open Beta since late last year. We don’t have a firm date, but we are aiming for Spring 2013, which may even be the very last day of Spring! There’s a lot of stuff we are adding to the game and some major systems changing, and we’re not comfortable removing the Beta label before that.

“But you’re charging for the game! That means you are released!”

True, we do allow people to spend money, and because we don’t wipe progress or accounts we feel comfortable with that. Value is always higher for the players who put money in early, and we really appreciate that support.

“But it says you are released on Steam!”

We have no direct control over how that label appears. We had to make a choice to make the game open to everyone, or keep it as a “pay to get access” beta. Being a F2P game, we wanted to let players play the game, and the only way we could really go Open Beta on Steam was to change to release. This is just a label however–Valve is not our publisher. I hope this post settles it finally, because we are both the developer and publisher, we list the status of the game as Open Beta. Every single screen of the game is labeled as such, and anyone who plays the game must know this. To quote some text that does not come from the publisher or developer directly is not responsible reporting of information.

“But I saw a review of AirMech!”

Any site that has contacted us we have explained to them that the game is beta, and we would like any articles on AirMech to be either labeled as “AirMech Preview” or “AirMech Beta Review”. This has not however stopped some sites from reviewing the beta version of the game, and in some cases cropping images to remove the Beta watermark. I’m not sure what else we can do, because I really don’t like to see reviews pop up that are different from what the final game will be. Maybe the reviews will be better now, it’s hard to say. All I know is that there are significant changes coming to the game, as well as a lot of additional content. A review of AirMech you read today does not mean it will be accurate of the non-Beta version of AirMech.

I’m going to list some more information here that has been misreported for clarification:

• AirMech Open Beta Chrome - Feb 15th 2012
• AirMech Open Beta PC - August 15th 2012
• AirMech Open Beta Steam (PC version only) - November 8th 2012
• AirMech OUYA - Launch window 2013
• AirMech Android - TBD 2013
• AirMech iOS - TBD 2013

Our transition from Open Beta to release will be after the next round of major changes to the game which we will introduce and test in the coming months. When we are satisfied that the new direction is our “final” target, we will remove the Beta label, and transition into content expansion mode.

Please help us by emailing editors and correcting misinformation wherever you find it, if that is press, forums, wikis, etc. The only way we can get accurate information out there is with your support, and we really appreciate it.

Update:

This again raises the question about wipes or resets when we exit Beta. There will not be a wipe or reset! Ask any of our players from way back in Alpha, they still have their stuff. Because of the type of game AirMech is where everything is a side-grade instead of upgrade, there’s no advantage you gain from being a longtime player–except for skill and experience. Try as we may we have not discovered how to remote wipe people’s brains, so we just gave up and let them keep their frontal lobes. Early players have been so valuable to us, I can’t imagine why we would take away what they have unlocked and helped us test. Personally I don’t like playing Betas of most games for that exact reason, which is another reason why we don’t want to do that. So I know it’s not normal procedure, but there will be no wipes or resets at the end of Beta. We would much rather reward our early players than punish them, especially when it doesn’t give them any power advantage.

Jan 22, 2013. James Green

Q: Am I allowed to broadcast and monetize AirMech videos?

A: Yes! Everyone is allowed to broadcast and monetize AirMech videos.

We have been asked quite a few times if people have permission to broadcast AirMech on various sites, and monetize those videos by enabling ads. We actually did not fully understand why people were asking, as we figured the burden is on the copyright owner to complain about use (which we never have done). Following some comments by TotalBiscuit recently now we know a bit more about the situation, so we wanted to super-clarify our position on this.

• Anyone is free to record and upload videos of AirMech and monetize them through ads.
• Anyone can stream AirMech live, and monetize it however they want.
• What else should be listed here?

I think this post is what people need, but I could also be missing something. Please leave a comment or send us a support email if something can be altered or further clarified. We want there to be zero friction for anyone to be able to publicize AirMech any way they want–as a small indie developer, word of mouth spread is our lifeblood, and we want to encourage the sharing of information and entertainment.

Once we are settled on the exact language that should be included here we will move this to a permanent location on our site in addition to this original post. Once we have an official AirMech website up (coming soon!) we will also include this notice there.

Thanks for your support everyone! Don’t hesitate to let us know what we can do to support you back. :)

Oct 10, 2012. James Green

We should probably post updates here more often to avoid this exact situation of having a ton of news we want to share, so I’ll apologize in advance and try to keep it light and entertaining. It may seem quiet here on the front page, but we have been super busy working on the game and the forums have been our primary outlet for communicating with players, which you are always welcome to take a peek at if you want to know the absolute latest happenings.

I don’t get it, why can’t you just post more often?

Excellent question! Carbon Games is actually a very small dev team. We don’t have biz dev, or community managers, or PR people. We are small and self-funded, and we’d love to grow the team a little bit when AirMech is profitable enough to do that, but for now everyone who answers support emails or posts on the forums is also full-time working on the game and we’re doing the best we can.

So what have you been doing all this time?

Since the last update we posted, let me think, there’s actually quite a few notable things:

• AirMech is now available on Steam
• New Warthog AirMech class released
• CTF and Endless Survival modes added
• Referral system revealed and used
• Added a ton of servers around the world
• Lots of in-progress Variants and new Units

Besides all that, we continue to optimize and fix bugs all the time. It’s a very organic development process, and we try to keep evaluating what is needed to make the game better.

What’s next for AirMech?

More features, more content. The huge increase in players recently has made it painfully clear that we need to increase the priority of proper matchmaking. This goes hand in hand with ranking, because what I want myself is probably what most people want–to get into a game where all players have a low ping and are around my own experience and skill level. So yes, we are doing that, and it will be rolled out as soon as possible.

For content, there’s been quite a few Units I’ve wanted to get in the game for a while and that’s getting a big push soon. I’ve always wanted to pull more units from Tower Defense style games, and we’ll of course have things that slow down enemies, and do damage over time. Survival will be getting airborne enemies, changing up that mode quite a bit. We will try to get those things rolled out as soon as we can, and of course all new Units are gifted to players who own the Beta Bundle.

More AirMech Variants are on the way as well. Anyone who launched the game recently who owns the Beta Bundle probably noticed they were gifted the “N-Vision” Osprey. Not all Variants are included with the Beta Bundle but some will be. For some future premium Variants I’ll just drop one word: Steampunk.

Who are ChimneySwift and HuskyStarcraft?

They are YouTubers who have tons of fans that they introduced AirMech to. Even though we’ve been tracking referrals from day 1, it was only in the last month that we went public with the rewards system and started letting you cash them in. You can check your own status ingame by clicking the first button with your name on it, then Referrals. You can also see who referred you in Store > Codes, or get your code there to give to others.

Both Chimney and Husky blew through the reward tiers. Chimney’s Tooth is now an item ingame, and his Pilot is being created, and probably with time he will get his own AirMech Variant as well. Husky’s fanbase, already a great overlap because of his coverage of Starcraft, quickly blew through all levels and he is getting all 3 premium rewards. His first reward is actually going to be a Pet (instead of an item) but it takes a bit longer to make so we rolled out the Husky Pilot first (now available to players over level 10) and he will also be designing a custom AirMech Variant based on the class of his choosing.

We think this has worked out great for everyone involved, and look forward to finishing off those ingame items because they really are meant to reward the players who were brought here by those broadcasters as a way to interact with the community.

If anyone with a large following is interested in maximizing the number of captured referrals, we encourage them to email us first and make sure their links are set up correctly. We actually do want you to get full credit for all referrals, and are happy to share with you the results of your fan’s participation.

Are you going to be at PAX Prime?

Yes! We’re going to be part of the Indie MEGABOOTH again (as we were at PAX East) and Alienware has generously loaned us systems and Mad Catz has given us a sweet hookup with peripherals! We’re going to have 12 stations set up, enough to run two 3v3 games at the same time! Plus the cool cats over at Penny Arcade are not only letting us bring back the PA Pilots from before, but we’re expanding the lineup. More Pilots, a Unit, and a Pet are all available, and each card will give you one of them randomly.

All you have to do to get a prize card is stop by our booth at PAX Prime and pick one up for free. Not going to PAX? Ask around until you find a friend who is going and ask him to get you a card, if we have enough we will help friends out.

Is AirMech going to be released soon?

Trick question, because AirMech is available to play right now! Sure, we have a beta label on it, that’s because we are actively developing it and we know it’s not totally done, and there’s bugs of course. The biggest change when we remove the beta label will be the removal of the Beta Bundle, not any big change in the game. Everyone keeps their progress and unlocks, and we keep adding stuff to the game. It doesn’t go in a box and we move on to the next thing–who makes games like that anymore? AirMech is a continually evolving game, which will not have a sequel or anything because we don’t want to ever fracture the playerbase. That’s also why we have never done a wipe or a reset, because we want players to keep everything they have earned even if they get a little more because of some bugs on our side.

By playing AirMech early, you get access to exclusive things that may not be available later. We promise you can keep everything you unlock, but we can’t promise that everything will always be available. It’s best to check out the game quite often to see what new stuff is available, you might find some nice surprises. Since the game is completely free to play we think this works out great for both us at Carbon and the players who want early access.

But why isn’t AirMech free on Steam yet?

Ah, true, you do have to buy the Beta Bundle to get access to the Steam version for now. As I mentioned above, there’s a bunch of key features that are needed to make the game enjoyable for large numbers of players. Valve has shown us the numbers that F2P games can expect on Steam and together we decided that we want to get matchmaking and ranking in place before we throw the doors wide open.

Believe me, I want the game available for everyone on Steam too, and it will be as soon as we are ready. In the mean time, you can still play the game on PC or in Chrome. Don’t forget if you bought the Beta Bundle outside of Steam, head on over to the forums and we will hook you up.

Any update on the Front Line Assembly music?

The album is done, mastered, and Metropolis is working out the release details. I have heard that November is the tentative release target for the album. From what I know, there will be a unique key printed in every physical album that will unlock the FLA exclusive items (4 Pilots + FLA AirMech Variant). It appears we are also going to be able to offer the album digitally, DRM-free, directly inside of the game which will instantly unlock the ingame items. We may even be able to offer a pre-sale where you can buy it and get the items, then download the album on the official release date. I’d love to be able to offer the album early but we have to respect the record label’s marketing plans.

We are able to integrate the music into the game now, which is on our growing list of things to do. We’ll probably start by adding some subtle menu music and then experiment with the dynamic ingame music. I expect that this will evolve a lot over time, and the band has offered to continue to assist us with this effort. I have to say the album is amazing, it’s everything I wanted and more, and I can’t wait to share it with you.

I have more very important questions!

I’d love to answer them, and they may have already been answered in the forums. If not, post your own question, or if you are from the media please get in touch with us–we’re always happy to chat. I’m actually just back from a week-long vacation (my first in I don’t know how long) and I’m eager to get a lot of new stuff into the game along with last minute PAX preparations. It’s going to be a crazy couple of weeks!

Aug 19, 2012. James Green

Today Marks the 1 Year Anniversary of Carbon Games!

July 4th is celebrated as Independence Day in the USA, and it’s also a special day to us at Carbon because it is the date we announced our own “independence” as an indie game developer. We’re very proud of what we have accomplished in the past year, with the AirMech beta going really well and on track to a full release at the end of the summer. Your support has helped get us this far, and we truly appreciate it. Your word of mouth marketing has brought us a very passionate group of early testers who have been helping to shape the direction of the game, and that continues.

Fourth of July Limited Edition Items

We’ve added 4 Limited Edition items to the game for this event. Following the naming convention for AirMech Variants, when you see quotes in front of a name it is meant as a cosmetic set indicator. So the “Liberty” Bombs and “Liberty” Boosters are cosmetic only, and have the same attributes as the normal versions. They have special particle effects and paint jobs, but offer no gameplay advantage.

Now is also your only chance to pick up the Bald Eagle pet, which goes in the Flair (cosmetic) slot in your loadout. All Flair items are purely cosmetic, and will never give gameplay advantages. The Bald Eagle has it’s own animation set, hovering in place when you are still and soaring to keep up at speed. While it may look cosmetic, Uncle Sam’s Hat is actually an Item that does affect gameplay. It gives +4% to Unit Cap, but reduces credits earned ingame by 2%. We like to think the hat inspires your troops so you can gather more, but there’s always taxes to deal with as a result.

And to all of our fans not celebrating July 4th, don’t think we have forgotten you! As we have more time we look forward to doing events for many more things, and we have a thread on the forums where we are collecting ideas.

Jul 04, 2012. James Green

Let’s talk about something besides AirMech for a minute

You may or may not be aware of the controversy surrounding Anita Sarkeesian’s Kickstarter project, but I’m really happy that the trolling and harassment only seemed to help raise more money for her video series. You can read a summary on her blog about it, and she has also gathered links of more sites discussing the whole thing in more detail.

So why I am I posting about this here, when it’s already covered in such detail by the gaming press? After some discussions with other game developers, I realized that what most of us accept as common sense (that the people harassing Anita are deplorable trolls), it’s not often that we as game developers can come out and say our opinions on the matter. I’m sure most publishers cringe at getting involved in controversy of any kind, but since we have no publisher well I guess I can say whatever I want. So this is what I want to say:

Anita, know that you have the support of a lot of game developers out there. Many of us are guilty of perpetuating stereotypes that are unfair from a race, culture, or gender perspective. I’m glad you are calling the industry out on this stuff. While often we rely on these tropes to present something familiar to our audience, we make mistakes and go too far sometimes. We are listening, many more than can publicly admit it, but we are listening.

Above is a concept image for our AirMech pilots from pre-production. The rendering style has changed, but our intention was to create a wide variety of characters and this is only the first round of them. Our Art Director is a woman herself, and has been given free reign to design the characters as she wants. Because they are pilots of giant robots and are non-military, we didn’t impose any restrictions on how she designed them. That’s one part I’m happy with at least because they don’t have to wear “skimpy armor” or something that makes zero sense.

Many of you know we are also the team who created Fat Princess. Again, Weng Chen created all of the characters for that. The only thing I feel a bit bad about there is the actual name and how it can be taken. Our producer (not part of Carbon) insisted on naming the game Fat Princess, which I’m sure led to more controversy and sales, but it was not something I personally thought created a good impression of the game. If you actually played the game, you’d see that no one is making fun of the princess, and that it’s a gameplay hook that she changes size. You love her and are determined to rescue her no matter how big or small she is.

There was a lot of controversy around Fat Princess back in the day, and while we were forbidden to say anything publicly about it, I was really disturbed by a lot of the comments. In particular it was the “fans” in support of us and taking revenge on the bloggers who were upset by what they perceived as us making fun of overweight women. I was just disgusted by it all, because I really don’t want those kinds of “fans” who are just cruel internet trolls.

Back to the original point, things are not always as they seem. I applaud Anita for having the stomach to deal with what she is dealing with, because I can’t say I would be able to. I hope she and others like her continue to voice their thoughts and concerns, and that they know we as game developers are listening. And to you the audience, if you have read this far, you should really watch this video that explains better than I can why we need to stop with all this nonsense

Jun 18, 2012. James Green