Desert Fox no longer on AppStore?

A place to discuss Desert Fox from Shenandoah Studio.
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DonCzirr
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Desert Fox no longer on AppStore?

Post by DonCzirr »

Hi Slitherine Folks,

I tried a search manually and then used your link on the Product Page and the item could not be found?


Has it been temporarily been pulled so you can apply the Bulge / Moscow upgrades? (hopefully that is true)


Looking forward to buying this once it's available again.
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DonCzirr
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Re: Desert Fox no longer on AppStore?

Post by DonCzirr »

Anything on this Slitherine Team ?

I have observed proper etiquette and waited a week for follow-up.

It would be appreciated if you were to respond and maintain good form :wink:
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IainMcNeil
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Re: Desert Fox no longer on AppStore?

Post by IainMcNeil »

Thanks Apple. It had taken the game off sale as a new agreement has been issued by them that requires a button to be checked. Done now so it should be back in the store soon....

We don't have plans to update Desert Fox as the cost to do this was very high and the response from the community haw been pretty much overwhelmingly leave it alone.

It would be as much work as writing the game from scratch as none of what is there is useable unfortunately. Desert Fox was a disaster for Shenandoah in terms of sales when it released and so there just isn't enough interest to do this. I just wish Apple would stop breaking apps in their store when they do updates. Sadly we don't have any control over this but I would definitely recommend complaining to Apple. They may even give you a refund - again something we are not allowed to do.
DonCzirr
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Re: Desert Fox no longer on AppStore?

Post by DonCzirr »

Ok thanks Iain - I shall do so.

It irritates me that Apple's ham handed, money grubbing practices have caused a general reduction in Sltherine's presence in that market.

You guys were the best strategy publisher on that platform and now we must rely on Hexwar - ugh ....

In any case - thanks for the response.
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Natus
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Re: Desert Fox no longer on AppStore?

Post by Natus »

IainMcNeil wrote:
We don't have plans to update Desert Fox as the cost to do this was very high and the response from the community haw been pretty much overwhelmingly leave it alone.
Wait...you queried each and every gamer who bought Desert Fox and they told you, "No, it's OK, don't update it, we don't want to play it after fall 2017"? REALLY?

I think not.
DonCzirr
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Re: Desert Fox no longer on AppStore?

Post by DonCzirr »

Given what I have seen of the reviews and the outlook for the future, I would pay half price for this but not the full 9.99.

Odd that this was not included in the sale for the other doomed Apps .... (BA, CTGW, P & S)
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Natus
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Re: Desert Fox no longer on AppStore?

Post by Natus »

Mark Herman, the venerated wargame designer, could NOT be more popular at the moment.
I'm really surprised that Slitherine is letting this die. Well, any of them die, but this especially.
DonCzirr
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Re: Desert Fox no longer on AppStore?

Post by DonCzirr »

Well - there's this bit for Iain to consider:

"It would be as much work as writing the game from scratch as none of what is there is useable unfortunately. Desert Fox was a disaster for Shenandoah in terms of sales when it released and so there just isn't enough interest to do this".


So - even if the core design was by a good Designer and the digital implementation was "fair" - it still had to sell.

From my perspective I can understand them not making the effort to rewrite ... but don't understand the pricing - given the comments above.

Of course, Slitherine may sell as they choose as they are the vendor ....

On the other hand, I think it would be unfortunate if my 4.99 and their account should never meet :wink:
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sa_gibson
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Re: Desert Fox no longer on AppStore?

Post by sa_gibson »

As one of the play testers for Desert Fox, I'd say the game was released before it was ready, not just in terms of being reasonably bug-free but also in terms of playability and balance. It was clear at the time that Shenandoah were under pressure to get it out, but I recall that the consensus of the testers was that a lot more play testing was needed. Also - I'd also say the market for the game was much more narrow than that for Bulge or Moscow. I still play it occasionally. I'm in a game now, where as Axis I'm leading by 80 VP near the end despite having done nothing but hold in place and beat off Allied attacks. That's what I mean by playability: The game has a victory range of between -10 and 10 VP, but either side can easily rack up massive amounts of VP; the Axis can win by doing nothing; the Allies can win by simply denying refits forever; and so one. It isn't finished.
Natus
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Re: Desert Fox no longer on AppStore?

Post by Natus »

In any event, Slitherine could re-tool the game and re-release it for the next iOS. Don't let them convince you otherwise!
DonCzirr
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Re: Desert Fox no longer on AppStore?

Post by DonCzirr »

That would be my preference as well but don't hold your breath.

We see the Shenandoah boys still publishing with Slitherine but with the release of Gettysburg, there does not seem to be any sign of IOS release.

For WW2 desert warfare on Mobile OS, I am now thinking to look to JTS Tunisia (for later operations) or to Android based Rommel And Afrika Korps from Joni Nuutinen.
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Natus
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Re: Desert Fox no longer on AppStore?

Post by Natus »

Or they could spruce up Desert Fox and put it on Steam as they did with the other Shenandoah games.
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Re: Desert Fox no longer on AppStore?

Post by LOAFERHOO »

Natus wrote:Or they could spruce up Desert Fox and put it on Steam as they did with the other Shenandoah games.
Can't agree more. The bundle on Steam only has two games in it and I hope they can release all three games to make this series complete and all available for PC users :o
DonCzirr
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Re: Desert Fox no longer on AppStore?

Post by DonCzirr »

I would still buy this on IOS and put it on my dedicated IOS 10 Containment Device with my other 32 bit Slitherine Games if there was a sale.


Not sure if that will ever happen though - since Slitherine completely left us (mobile gamers) out of the last big holiday sales. :cry:


For the Mobile Crowd, it was a Blue Christmas that's certain .....
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sa_gibson
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Re: Desert Fox no longer on AppStore?

Post by sa_gibson »

Desert Fox is pretty buggy. I’ve still got a playable version on one of my devices. I play it from time to time but truth be told, the game wasn’t finished. We were still reporting problems the day they released it, and aside from bugs, the play balance is way off as they never had time to tune it.
DonCzirr
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Re: Desert Fox no longer on AppStore?

Post by DonCzirr »

Right.

Given statements like this and Shenandoah's general turn away from IOS support, I will not buy it at full price.


If they do a 50% sale on IOS titles where they dropped support, I'd pick them up.
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PierreSpartan
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Re: Desert Fox no longer on AppStore?

Post by PierreSpartan »

I am aware of Battle of the Bulge and Drive on Moscow since 1 week, both games I found so great, gameplay is excellent as well as the developper's work regarding historical events in both games. As I understood by searching news on internet Desert Fox didn't encounter a great success, released still with many issues, but it sounds a bit weird to me as some 2014 reviews gave 4 or 5 stars to the game. That would be so great if one day you can re-build the game on iOS to complete the Crisis in Command trilogy on iPad (and Steam btw), because by looking at some videos from 2014, Desert Fox looks really nice. It is, I think, a pity that this works lead to nowhere with a kind of abandonware app. Of course I understand that it could need a lot of money and is time-consuming. Still... I am just wondering if a kickstarter campaign to improve the game and change it to 64 bit should be useful (?).
Regards.
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Re: Desert Fox no longer on AppStore?

Post by isor »

As an alternative, it would be great if Slitherine and other publishers would follow a policy of open-sourcing discontinued titles like this one so that maintenance could be taken over by other publishers or community hobbyists if there is interest.
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