Fancy Skulls — diary development, record No. 1
Look, I a real indie developer of computer games! And all because I make computer games.
For more than a year I have been working on the game Fancy Skulls a first person shooter with random level generation and permanent death, you can simply say that this is a shooter-roguelike.
I'll tell you what I did, what I learned, and what are you going to do next. Maybe it would be worth the wait when game will be finished and write a postmortemom, but I then I forget something and something too lazy to record and so will be something like a series. It will all end? Will my game to Steam via Greenlight and will I be through this in a frock coat and a monocle in the left eye progulyatsya on the Nevsky Prospect in the perfect shoes with white gamagami? If so, how and when? What is chaps? Stay tuned and you'll learn everything.
What I've already done.
I made a game that is in early version. Probably somewhere between alpha and beta.
It has
the
In the amount of 135. So that's something.
Gameplay takes place as follows: on the level there are several rooms, when the player enters a room the door closes, then after some player actions with eggs that are in the room "hatch" opponents. When they're all killed — doors open. The focus of the game not so much on reflexes and speed how much on the tactics of the opponents are different and you need to choose who to kill before whom later. So the same weapon can be modified, for example, to make the gun shoot mini bombs sticky bombs, shotgun, lightning, and the revolver was given a coin, after 12 hits on opponents in a row without mistakes. Well and items that add abilities like polymorph, or flight.
Here, for example advertisement, one of the previous versions.
In October 2012 I became the lead devlog on TIGsource, the forum of indie developers, where you can see how the game changed over time. To work on a game I started a little earlier.
Now I sell the game through the Humble Widget on the site games that looks like this:
Since the release in mid-August 2013 till today (24 January 2014) was purchased 139 copies site (gross — $1 273.04).
the shop IndieGamesStand 12 copies (gross $76.88)
Pay what you want deal December 2-5, at the same IndieGamesStand, 1,043 copies (gross $1,490.65)
Gross — exclusive of VAT, commissions and distributor of payment systems.
Nothing that would cause someone to profitnot and start to envy, Yes. Why so?
In the first game is still in development, so I wasn't too heavy on the marketing. But to completely neglect I did not, of course. I sent out a bunch of keys to play different youtubers that make short reviews of the type of "first look". The result is this list. In the gaming press, I do that too, almost wrote.
So, almost no permanent letsplay that I think nowadays is very important for attracting attention to the game, especially of this kind — a game that is meant to play many times, it becomes better to play differently, because changed objects, then how to build levels, enemies.
The reason is the same — Graeme not quite ready, and despite the fact that in General the reviews are positive, I think you need to improve dynamics and make the game more fun, over which I now work.
Another difficulty — despite the fact that when I started developing the no FPS roguelike was not in sight, except a couple of neglected or protracted projects) now they are a dime a dozen(Paranautical Activity, Tower Of Guns, Eldrich, Heavy Bullets, Rogue Shooter, etc.). With some developers we're friends on Twitter, and they are great guys. But I'm sometimes sad that I'm not working faster and more and not released Fancy Skulls before they their games, because then things could be different. Despite the fact that my game is different, and no one accuses me of plagiarism every time I hear "Paranautical Activity" I sigh.
But, I'm not going sdavatsya and consider putting enough effort I can make the game great and successful.
What I learned
I mean as an indie developer in General, not just on this project.
The most important skill is the ability to work and learn. Funny thing is this, it seems, few have taught. It is more important than the ability to write code to draw models. Not afraid to be wrong, to experimenting, don't quit when things work out badly, to acquire new skills. Continue to work on the project when it a bug that it is not clear what this is why why ahhh, why am I doing this.
If you know how to write the code for the game does not automatically mean that you can to write.
This is a separate topic, but vkradtse what I think is the most important thing is that you need to learn to do a lot of small projects, not afraid that in the beginning will turn out to be not so good. To endure and continue to do. Sooner or later will turn out well.
To work Tu do lists, to break into small subtasks, even smaller, until the task will not cease to frighten. Delete and get pleasure from it.
A game with great gameplay but without quite without animations and effects will attract less attention than a game where everything is polished and strum, responds to every action of the player and looks good, but the game mechanics are rather weak. Video in topic.
Marketing and PR is very important. And is becoming increasingly important. We are now seeing indie boom. Perhaps even your mother in the evenings indulge in kamakura. And harder to stand out among the mass of games. Even the Incentive now goes to a few games a day. Simply put, if you just make a cool game, but not make an effort to show and present players — it is likely that about it no one will know! To do this you need to start the sooner the better. Show cool screenshots, start devlog, send the alpha version to youtubers(this is of course not for all games).
The youtubers and streamers(those who broadcast the game online) is now very popular and thanks to them the game can obtain a large share of attention. There is also a sense that they are significant "traditional media," especially when you consider that if the site to write about the game once, the series letsplay will be reminded of it.
For more than a year I have been working on the game Fancy Skulls a first person shooter with random level generation and permanent death, you can simply say that this is a shooter-roguelike.
I'll tell you what I did, what I learned, and what are you going to do next. Maybe it would be worth the wait when game will be finished and write a postmortemom, but I then I forget something and something too lazy to record and so will be something like a series. It will all end? Will my game to Steam via Greenlight and will I be through this in a frock coat and a monocle in the left eye progulyatsya on the Nevsky Prospect in the perfect shoes with white gamagami? If so, how and when? What is chaps? Stay tuned and you'll learn everything.
What I've already done.
I made a game that is in early version. Probably somewhere between alpha and beta.
It has
the
-
the
- 17 items-upgrades the
- 16 items with spells the
- 7 weapons the
- 65 mods for weapons the
- 14. the
- 16 kinds of strange trees
In the amount of 135. So that's something.
Gameplay takes place as follows: on the level there are several rooms, when the player enters a room the door closes, then after some player actions with eggs that are in the room "hatch" opponents. When they're all killed — doors open. The focus of the game not so much on reflexes and speed how much on the tactics of the opponents are different and you need to choose who to kill before whom later. So the same weapon can be modified, for example, to make the gun shoot mini bombs sticky bombs, shotgun, lightning, and the revolver was given a coin, after 12 hits on opponents in a row without mistakes. Well and items that add abilities like polymorph, or flight.
Here, for example advertisement, one of the previous versions.
In October 2012 I became the lead devlog on TIGsource, the forum of indie developers, where you can see how the game changed over time. To work on a game I started a little earlier.
Now I sell the game through the Humble Widget on the site games that looks like this:
note about the widget
to it was not so easy, I sent three letters to support Humble before I answered. Now, after the opening of Humble Store appeared page help, which includes the forms that must be filled.
Before I got this wonderful widget I used BMT micro. Widget better because, firstly it is much easier to generate codes review second him more confidence, few people do not know what is Humble Bundle. The only disadvantage Humble — new version, you have to send an email and wait until they upload to the server.
Before I got this wonderful widget I used BMT micro. Widget better because, firstly it is much easier to generate codes review second him more confidence, few people do not know what is Humble Bundle. The only disadvantage Humble — new version, you have to send an email and wait until they upload to the server.
Since the release in mid-August 2013 till today (24 January 2014) was purchased 139 copies site (gross — $1 273.04).
the shop IndieGamesStand 12 copies (gross $76.88)
Pay what you want deal December 2-5, at the same IndieGamesStand, 1,043 copies (gross $1,490.65)
Gross — exclusive of VAT, commissions and distributor of payment systems.
Nothing that would cause someone to profitnot and start to envy, Yes. Why so?
In the first game is still in development, so I wasn't too heavy on the marketing. But to completely neglect I did not, of course. I sent out a bunch of keys to play different youtubers that make short reviews of the type of "first look". The result is this list. In the gaming press, I do that too, almost wrote.
So, almost no permanent letsplay that I think nowadays is very important for attracting attention to the game, especially of this kind — a game that is meant to play many times, it becomes better to play differently, because changed objects, then how to build levels, enemies.
The reason is the same — Graeme not quite ready, and despite the fact that in General the reviews are positive, I think you need to improve dynamics and make the game more fun, over which I now work.
Another difficulty — despite the fact that when I started developing the no FPS roguelike was not in sight, except a couple of neglected or protracted projects) now they are a dime a dozen(Paranautical Activity, Tower Of Guns, Eldrich, Heavy Bullets, Rogue Shooter, etc.). With some developers we're friends on Twitter, and they are great guys. But I'm sometimes sad that I'm not working faster and more and not released Fancy Skulls before they their games, because then things could be different. Despite the fact that my game is different, and no one accuses me of plagiarism every time I hear "Paranautical Activity" I sigh.
But, I'm not going sdavatsya and consider putting enough effort I can make the game great and successful.
What I learned
I mean as an indie developer in General, not just on this project.
The most important skill is the ability to work and learn. Funny thing is this, it seems, few have taught. It is more important than the ability to write code to draw models. Not afraid to be wrong, to experimenting, don't quit when things work out badly, to acquire new skills. Continue to work on the project when it a bug that it is not clear what this is why why ahhh, why am I doing this.
If you know how to write the code for the game does not automatically mean that you can to write.
This is a separate topic, but vkradtse what I think is the most important thing is that you need to learn to do a lot of small projects, not afraid that in the beginning will turn out to be not so good. To endure and continue to do. Sooner or later will turn out well.
To work Tu do lists, to break into small subtasks, even smaller, until the task will not cease to frighten. Delete and get pleasure from it.
A game with great gameplay but without quite without animations and effects will attract less attention than a game where everything is polished and strum, responds to every action of the player and looks good, but the game mechanics are rather weak. Video in topic.
Marketing and PR is very important. And is becoming increasingly important. We are now seeing indie boom. Perhaps even your mother in the evenings indulge in kamakura. And harder to stand out among the mass of games. Even the Incentive now goes to a few games a day. Simply put, if you just make a cool game, but not make an effort to show and present players — it is likely that about it no one will know! To do this you need to start the sooner the better. Show cool screenshots, start devlog, send the alpha version to youtubers(this is of course not for all games).
The youtubers and streamers(those who broadcast the game online) is now very popular and thanks to them the game can obtain a large share of attention. There is also a sense that they are significant "traditional media," especially when you consider that if the site to write about the game once, the series letsplay will be reminded of it.
note Pro YouTube
Now those who make gaming videos on YouTube hard times because Google went crazy and permanently disable monetization of the video because of claims that may be set by almost anyone, the system works automatically, this challenge is possible but difficult, and there are cases where a video from the makers own the game marked as narechenie copyright for the music. So now the developers indicate specifically that they are allowed to monetize their games. However, this does not always help.
Twitter can be very useful for communicating with other developers just to support a type of question-and-answer jokes, and as a way to tell about their game (see the hashtag #screenshotsaturday). Thanks to Twitter, I participated in the sale NotOnSteam, which wrote on habré. Yet, recently I saw an account humble writes tweets about different games with their widget recently, and asked them to tweet about my game — the result is about 800 visits and 14 sales in this and the following days, the previous day's sales were zero.
Also Reddit in addition to all sorts of different positions that you can think of, they also have a weekly post Screenshot Saturday r/gamedev, which can also attract attention, if there are cool screenshots(especially the GIF) and post them too later.
As I wrote pair letsplay your game, what would it show and tell. In order to do that I have some time to record the game in Spelunky with commentary. It's not easy for a number of reasons — you need to learn how to play and say something meaningful, it was necessary to overcome shyness from the sound of own voice in the recording and from the fact that I speak with an accent, and also to solve a number tekhnicheskikh of questions — what to record and how to record so you could hear me. But, it was quite exciting.
As well, the best tips from various smart people about how to make games and not games that I have collected on this page(English), but there are the translations: the Manifesto of indie developers writing by Edmund McMillen (Super Meat Boy, Binding of Isaac, Gish), About dodeljivanje games, Derek Yu(Spelunky)
But, from time to time I feel that I have no idea what I'm doing. But, I heard that is normal.
What I'm going to do next
To continue to improve the game, namely to add surprises, now the game can be monotonous, to Refine the visual, slowly add content. I prislushivalsya to the feedback from players, do it cautiously, because the players are usually able to correctly identify the weak points, but rarely can understand what exactly is the problem and how to fix it. And sometimes they jump straight to the proposals about what needs to change, and you need to understand what the original cause of these wishes.
Going to place the game in any other stores. Humble promised to take the game in Humble store, but the date is not yet known. Think about Desura, Greenman Gaming and Gamer's Gate. As I sign off GOG.com but they said to contact them when the game will closer to release, because they don't publish a game with "early access".
Well, in the future, I certainly want to see your game on Steam. You need to pass Greenlight, a system in which you need to gain enough votes from existing users. The last time to approve games of steel in large batches, so it's somewhat easier. Valve is planning to unsubscribe from the Greenlight in the future and make Steam more open. Then they may have to solve the problem of visibility of the games, because if used to cost the game to get the Incentive and she already had a huge audience. Now, as I mentioned games coming out more and attention each game gets smaller. But, the Incentive game still means a lack of financial worries for a long time. Especially after participating in the sales.
And leggings — these are snap-on covers on the shoes initially for protection, but then started wearing them because it became fashionable.
I hope it all seem interesting, despite some confusion of the presentation.
If you have suggestions for the next note or write in comments.
Update: since the topic was moved to "I'm a PR", say directly, I would be very grateful votes:
Article based on information from habrahabr.ru
Twitter can be very useful for communicating with other developers just to support a type of question-and-answer jokes, and as a way to tell about their game (see the hashtag #screenshotsaturday). Thanks to Twitter, I participated in the sale NotOnSteam, which wrote on habré. Yet, recently I saw an account humble writes tweets about different games with their widget recently, and asked them to tweet about my game — the result is about 800 visits and 14 sales in this and the following days, the previous day's sales were zero.
Also Reddit in addition to all sorts of different positions that you can think of, they also have a weekly post Screenshot Saturday r/gamedev, which can also attract attention, if there are cool screenshots(especially the GIF) and post them too later.
As I wrote pair letsplay your game, what would it show and tell. In order to do that I have some time to record the game in Spelunky with commentary. It's not easy for a number of reasons — you need to learn how to play and say something meaningful, it was necessary to overcome shyness from the sound of own voice in the recording and from the fact that I speak with an accent, and also to solve a number tekhnicheskikh of questions — what to record and how to record so you could hear me. But, it was quite exciting.
As well, the best tips from various smart people about how to make games and not games that I have collected on this page(English), but there are the translations: the Manifesto of indie developers writing by Edmund McMillen (Super Meat Boy, Binding of Isaac, Gish), About dodeljivanje games, Derek Yu(Spelunky)
But, from time to time I feel that I have no idea what I'm doing. But, I heard that is normal.
What I'm going to do next
To continue to improve the game, namely to add surprises, now the game can be monotonous, to Refine the visual, slowly add content. I prislushivalsya to the feedback from players, do it cautiously, because the players are usually able to correctly identify the weak points, but rarely can understand what exactly is the problem and how to fix it. And sometimes they jump straight to the proposals about what needs to change, and you need to understand what the original cause of these wishes.
Going to place the game in any other stores. Humble promised to take the game in Humble store, but the date is not yet known. Think about Desura, Greenman Gaming and Gamer's Gate. As I sign off GOG.com but they said to contact them when the game will closer to release, because they don't publish a game with "early access".
Well, in the future, I certainly want to see your game on Steam. You need to pass Greenlight, a system in which you need to gain enough votes from existing users. The last time to approve games of steel in large batches, so it's somewhat easier. Valve is planning to unsubscribe from the Greenlight in the future and make Steam more open. Then they may have to solve the problem of visibility of the games, because if used to cost the game to get the Incentive and she already had a huge audience. Now, as I mentioned games coming out more and attention each game gets smaller. But, the Incentive game still means a lack of financial worries for a long time. Especially after participating in the sales.
And leggings — these are snap-on covers on the shoes initially for protection, but then started wearing them because it became fashionable.
I hope it all seem interesting, despite some confusion of the presentation.
If you have suggestions for the next note or write in comments.
Update: since the topic was moved to "I'm a PR", say directly, I would be very grateful votes:
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