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The Business Side of Video (Space) Games EXCLUSIVELY ON IDLE THUMBS

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Here's some Canberra, directly above Parliament House:

 

SZCycKS.jpg

 

Billy Connolly once pointed out how Australia has the right idea by making it possible to walk up Parliament House, so you're figuratively stomping all over politicians. They tend to not allow people up when they're feeling vulnerable, though, like when polls are down and they want to make a fuss about terrorism.

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The field of grass at the bottom is doing strange things with the perspective. It seems an almost Esscher-esque reversal.

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The field of grass at the bottom is doing strange things with the perspective. It seems an almost Esscher-esque reversal.

 

Here's that 'field of grass' from a different angle:

 

pmPEkJQ.jpg

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It does sound odd, but not all that surprising. They're basically doing the first step to this sort of thing with Game of Thrones.

 

This, though: "Telltale will be developing its first original IP as a Super Show" UM HELLO PUZZLE AGENT C'MON

 

(I know what it actually means but the phrasing, the phrasing!!!)

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I was going to say "never mind, there's a re-release happening soon" but then I read the article and realised that's what this was :(

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Yet you still phrased it as a remake :(

Ahem, anyway, there are currently two copies of NOLF and one of NOLF2 in my local charity shops for a quid each. I doubt I'll be taken up on this, but if anyone wants to pay me that quid plus postage, I'd be happy to grab a copy and mail it to them!

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There's an article on Gamasutra about indie game development and how well their products sell on all available platforms.

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/237811/500_games_launched_per_day_on_iOS_last_year_and_other_digital_sales_facts.php

 

XB1 information was hard to come by (which isn't surprising; MS is playing the game Sony did last gen of being protective of information that can be used to make them look bad), but as of late 2014 indie game sales are in the ballpark of PS4 indie game sales. But that's based on info before Christmas 2014; if anyone missed it, the PS4 had a HUGE holiday for sales and there's probably going to be a gap in indie game performance on those two platforms now. Oh also, indie devs hate the parity clause MS has going on.

 

Nintendo is kinda getting looked down on because they aren't really into the whole 'sales' thing. Which is to say, buying things for cheaper on a weekend or something. Also 3DS indie games do really well in Japan. It's still worth making things on the 3DS and Wii U, it's just that you can't expect Steam-smash-hit numbers.

 

Speaking of Steam, the article more or less just notes that the marketplace there is crowded and competitive as hell. What I'll add is that a couple days ago I saw something on Twitter comparing the playtime data of Evolve vs. Crusader Kings 2. The former had a bigger peak rate of players, but it died off pretty goddamn fast, and CK2 is still GROWING after all this time and currently exceeds Evolve's daily player rate.

 

Last, as the article title says, on iOS there were 500 games released per day in 2014, while Android had 250. That is goddamn BANANAS. That sounds like a marketplace more crowded and dysfunctional than Steam's by quite a large margin. It truly makes it seem like a lottery for success, except instead of simply buying a ticket you have to put an amount of work in. I say "an amount" because there's so many clone products (or maybe outright ripoffs) that, really, how much time does it take to change a name and a graphic or two?

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Last, as the article title says, on iOS there were 500 games released per day in 2014, while Android had 250. That is goddamn BANANAS. That sounds like a marketplace more crowded and dysfunctional than Steam's by quite a large margin. It truly makes it seem like a lottery for success, except instead of simply buying a ticket you have to put an amount of work in. I say "an amount" because there's so many clone products (or maybe outright ripoffs) that, really, how much time does it take to change a name and a graphic or two?

I'd be really interested in an article that tries to compare the revenues of original games and their clones. Except

A) That'd be hard to do because judging a clone is tricky, and potentially libelous?

B) If it did come out that per hour you make more money on clones I'd be both depressed and terrified that an article outright told the mobile gaming world that was the case.

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I'd be really interested in an article that tries to compare the revenues of original games and their clones. Except

A) That'd be hard to do because judging a clone is tricky, and potentially libelous?

 

It'd be easy enough to write the article to talk about "Games which are just kind of similar and definitely not clones no who said that not me", but I think an important piece of information you just can't get is how much each game costs to make. I know mobile games are kind of a lottery, but I assume that it's not so severe that production costs are rendered irrelevant for a success.

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Fucking yes! I'll pick them up when I next see you?

 

Oh yeah, cool. I assume you only want one copy of each? I'll pick them up tomorrow, assuming they haven't gone! That leaves another copy of NOLF 1 if anyone wants it...

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Electronic Arts has shut down Maxis. It's for the better, perhaps.

 

http://kotaku.com/ea-shuts-down-simcity-developer-maxis-1689454903

 

Edit - A ton of people are super unhappy with the timing of this, saying it seems like EA is trying to have the news of the closure buried while GDC is ongoing, in addition to this weekend being a PAX event. Can't blame them. Also, great irony because those accusations alone just bring the news to the top of any trending list out there.

 

Also to clarify my "for the better" comment, hey, SimCity died a couple years ago when always-online-SimCity came out. I already mourned that series.

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Itch.io just announced their revenue model:

http://itch.io/about/what-is-itchio

 

Starting now, itch.io will utilize an open revenue sharing model. As a creator you can now pay what you want to itch.io: the revenue split between the seller and itch.io is configurable by the seller. Set it to 10%, 30%, or even 0%.

 
You might be saying “well that sounds pretty risky, what if everyone sets it to 0?” We think that’s a risk we’re willing to take in the spirit of encouraging the generous and supportive community that’s already developed around itch.io.

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Electronic Arts has shut down Maxis. It's for the better, perhaps.

 

http://kotaku.com/ea-shuts-down-simcity-developer-maxis-1689454903

 

Edit - A ton of people are super unhappy with the timing of this, saying it seems like EA is trying to have the news of the closure buried while GDC is ongoing, in addition to this weekend being a PAX event. Can't blame them. Also, great irony because those accusations alone just bring the news to the top of any trending list out there.

 

Also to clarify my "for the better" comment, hey, SimCity died a couple years ago when always-online-SimCity came out. I already mourned that series.

 

I noticed fairly recently that they patched in online mode to SimCity. In the end, they completely missed the point of what people were really angry about. That being said, I plan on giving it another shot here soon.

 

Edit: Also, I would have liked to see another Spore

 

Edit 2: I hate how studio names just kinda carry on and move around even after everyone involved in a project has left. It feels like when EA started naming all their different development offices "Bioware"

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Well people leaving one by one is one thing; the culture / style of a studio can be kept intact if the replacements are brought in to nurture or further that stuff. But if a studio is entirely ripped apart from the ground up, yeah, what good is the name?

 

At any rate, the SimCity fiasco (not just what the game was, but Maxis' poor handling of it and not fighting EA on the bad decisions) is what told me Maxis was gone a long time ago.

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Oh yeah, cool. I assume you only want one copy of each? I'll pick them up tomorrow, assuming they haven't gone! That leaves another copy of NOLF 1 if anyone wants it...

 

Done!

 

Re. itch.io, I am currently paying them 10% of my £0.00 revenue from my mature comedy Twine game.

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Oh man, this Battlefield Hardline article makes me sad.

 

This little nugget especially bothers me.

 

The cardinal sin of thug design is making the bad guys seem more interesting than the central character. "You don't want anyone cooler than the player showing up. Players don't want to feel like they are on the side of the squares, interrupting this cool party of fun guys."

 

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Oh man, this Battlefield Hardline article makes me sad.

Writer Rob Auten told me that one of the difficulties he had with this game was creating thugs who were engaging enough to seem realistic, but not so engaging that the player might feel guilty about shooting them.

Apart from just making the player feel good about dishing out slaughter, there's also the dreaded threat of boring the player.

"I'm a big fan of the non-violent path and my heart does go out to some of these bad guy avatars, so I thought if we make them likeable people maybe will be more inclined to shoot them less frequently," said Auten. "But at the end of the day there needs to be a middle level of interaction."

 

Yeah, nothing horrifyingly problematic there. Just cops and robbers!

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